Train Tales

I'm on board the Capitol to Sacramento this morning, where I will rent a car for a brief dash to Yuba City to deal with banks and pay a short visit to my sister and nephew (and deliver presents purchased on my trip). I ended up doing a lot of explaining to a large group of people (most of them older than me) who have never ridden a train in their lives and who couldn't figure our where the train for Sacramento was going to board. In their defense, the newly-rebuilt Santa Clara Caltrain (Amtrak station code SCC) station has no signs that I saw directing people wanting to board Amtrak to take the passenger subway to tracks 1/2, which are on an island platform. Track 3, the one closest to the station, is primarily for southbound (toward San Jose) Caltrain traffic, and has no physical connection to the line that runs to Sacramento anyway, but how could anyone but a train buff like me know that?

While on board the train, I heard the conductor spout several bits of train inaccuracies. He told one passenger that BART runs all the way to San Jose now. (There's a BART extension under construction, but it will be many, many years before BART reaches downtown San Jose.) He also said that the "Bullet Trains" in Japan go 300 miles per hour. (They travel at a top speed of 300 kilometers per hour, which is 186 MPH in old money.) I like trains more than most people, but I would prefer giving people accurate information.

The Election Is Over

...for me, at least, as I dropped my ballot in the mail yesterday. I didn't even have to pay postage, for I'm in a designated postal-only precinct (apparently if there are a sufficiently small number of voters in some precincts in Santa Clara County, they'll declare the entire precinct mail-ballot-only and therefore you don't have to pay postage on the ballot). I would have voted sooner, but I was out of the country and my ballot arrived just before I left.

I guess it's mostly the top-line race that gets everyone's attention, although the result of California's vote for President is basically a forgone conclusion. (I've had people urge me to re-register to vote at Fernley in order to vote in a "swing" state, but I don't think it would be ethical until I'm spending more than half my time there; at the moment it's less than 25% overall.)

( Aside about electoral vote distribution )

Presidential election aside, the main reason I waited until my return from Europe to prepare my ballot was so I could spend time thinking over the various ballot propositions. I voted for Proposition 30, although personally I wish it raised all income tax rates, even if only a token amount at the low end, not just the $250K and up rates. I don't like paying taxes (who does), but I recognize TANSTAAFL. I also see in Nevada, where there is no personal income tax and where both property and sales taxes are substantially lower than in California, that there are also significantly fewer public services. For instance, one of the reasons there's no practical way to get from Fernley to Reno except by private car — not even a Greyhound bus stop — is that such services are not economical on a stand-alone basis and there's no state money to pay the necessary subsidy for buses outside of Carson City, Reno, and Las Vegas. You get what you pay for, and California has a very high level of government-funded services, and they cost money. I suppose there are many people who are convinced that they personally don't benefit from any government services, so they don't see why they should pay taxes for them. But I went to a state-supported college (CSU Chico), and I'm certain I've paid far more in taxes to California than they spent subsidizing my education, and vastly more than I would have paid had I not gotten that degree. Therefore, I see no problem in continuing to re-invest in education in the long run, since I believe the long-term benefit to the state is high.

I voted no on the competing Proposition 38, even though it's a bit more progressive in its taxation, because among other things, if 38 passes and gets more votes than 30, the "trigger cuts" embedded in this year's budget still go into effect, which could have a catastrophic effect on state services and education.

( Ranting on the No Tax Anywhere Anyhow Anytime People )

That's enough talk of politics. You can't change my mind in any meaningful ways for this election, because I've voted already. Now to wait and see what the results are.