Foreign companies buy U.S. roads, bridges

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060715/ap_on_re_us/highways_for_sale;_ylt=AnLTDEcB8dc9OESxmNssM62s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OTB1amhuBHNlYwNtdHM-

Foreign companies buy U.S. roads, bridges

By LESLIE MILLER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 12 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Roads and bridges built by U.S. taxpayers are starting to be sold off, and so far foreign-owned companies are doing the buying.


On a single day in June, an Australian-Spanish partnership paid $3.8 billion to lease the Indiana Toll Road. An Australian company bought a 99-year lease on Virginia's Pocahontas Parkway, and Texas officials decided to let a Spanish-American partnership build and run a toll road from Austin to Seguin for 50 years.

Few people know that the tolls from the U.S. side of the tunnel between Detroit and Windsor, Canada, go to a subsidiary of an Australian company — which also owns a bridge in Alabama.

Some experts welcome the trend. Robert Poole, transportation director for the conservative think tank Reason Foundation, said private investors can raise more money than politicians to build new roads because these kind of owners are willing to raise tolls.

........

[pooja]

1. And that makes absolutely no sense.... now you have taken

tolls and the charges for tolls away from the taxpayers who own the roads... Where is the piece of the pie for the tax payers who fronted the roads in the first place.. we are literally selling America off... Guess green paper is better than turqoise beads.

[AngryAmish]

8. The way it worked in IL

State (or city) issues bond issue. Money is fronted by folks who buy gov't bonds (tax free income). Road gets made. Bonds get paid off and tollways were supposed to go away.

But it didn't work that way. Tollway was a featherbed job bonanza for politicians. Bonds did not get paid off but got rolled over. Tolls forever.

My state is very corrupt.

[Mist]

2. Yet another way to rip off the taxpayers--when it was "publicly-owned"

at least some of the money went to the states who have these tolls and bridges. There was plenty of room for corruption, but the states got some benefit.

[Amonester]

3. How many tax cuts will these new (rich) owners get from now on?

Until their 'share' of taxes = $0,000,000.00?

And how much in returns from the Reptiles too?

[Jose Diablo]

4. How much money

ends-up in a Swiss bank account for some politician at the state or local level.

The pattern of activity by the IMF and World Bank is when they force third world countries to privatize the commons, some local politician gets millions to grease the skids.

I wonder how much our politicians are getting?

[AzDar]

5. This needs to be ILLEGAL. No other country would be foolish enough to sell

off it's own infrastructure to foreign interests (that I'm aware of).
It's a National Security issue if nothing else....

[icymist]

6. It's also a Constitutional issue about the freedom to travel.

But, the Constitution is now just another piece of paper, right?

[President Kerry]

16. the ownership of some critical assets (like that of airlines)is regulated

I believe foreign ownership is becoming increasingly common is just a way to raise money more efficiently, which opens new possibilities in building public infrastructure. Some of the managerial decisions affecting the public are still (hopefully!) under the purview of the local/national authorities. I'm fairly certain there exist built-in safety and continuing operation clauses.

[annabanana]

7. So lets see....

If the tolls get raised higher than the local populace is willing to pay, can the roads owners hire Blackwater to come in and "protect their assets" by damaging alternative routes?

Is guess so, if what's good for the goose is good for the gander..

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

9. Enronizing our infrastructure...great idea!

[sweetheart]

15. don't worry, it won't be painful

Soon they'll privatize our own bodies, and then we can outsource the pain
to somewhere that deserves it! :-)

[seafan]

10. The BFEE/Carlyle/Corporate behemoth is selling America's seed corn.

For example, all the $$$$ that folks spend at WalMart doesn't stay in their little towns to benefit them. The money flows to Bentonville, Arkansas and to China, to keep those nice, cheap imports stuffing WalMart shelves.

Now, if our infrastructure is sold off to the highest foreign bidder, after the initial payment for the structure, how will the local folks EVER again benefit from this sale? Unless they think that rapidly rising tolls and fees charged by the new foreign owner is *a benefit for the community*, there AIN'T any benefit. The only new roads that will be built will be in another country.


This is all deliberate, people. There is no question about it.



The revolution is coming.

[Sadie5]

11. Same in Indiana

New toll road was sold to some foreign country(forget who) then Daniels was screaming at the top of his lungs how black the state was. If not for selling the toll road Indiana would not be in the black. A group sued but the judge sided with Daniels.

[davekriss]

12. One modification...

"The BFEE/Carlyle/Corporate behemoth is selling America's seed corn" for personal benefit (the "modification" is in italics). The USG under Republithug rule is all about broadly socializing the costs while privitizing the benefits in the hands of a favored few (in contradistinction from progressives, who are all about balancing cost and benefit fairly between all citizenry, seeking equality and justice).

Even if tolls stay the same, understand that every dollar spent to traverse those roads will flow first to road maintenance workers (who, given foreign ownership, can be cheaply inshored under the L1 visa program, which is even worse than the more well known H1B visa program), then a portion to local management, then another portion to overseas management, then the remainder to shareholders, most predominantly wealthy individuals in their own countries. That export of cash flow degrades demand that otherwise would exist if the dollars stayed here. The degredation of demand means less demand for workers here, which means less jobs. And so it goes.

(Before someone says, yeah but the shareholder overseas will then buy our products and services and the cash gets recycled back to the U.S., let me add that some of that cash gets recycled in the form of exports, but not all, and the U.S. is at or near yearly trade deficit records, meaning we are slowly siphoning off aggregate demand. The cause of all severe depressions is rooted in crises of aggregate demand.)

Before Reagan was sworn in in January 1981, the U.S. owned 3.7x more of the rest of the world than they owned of us; by the end of GHWB's Presidency 12 years later, the rest of the world owned 0.4x more of us than we owned of them (source, Kevin Phillips' Boiling Point). The reason for the sea-change then was the erosion of the value of the dollar (caused by the James Baker arranged Plaza Accord in 1985) resulting in a huge fire sale of U.S. assets. Though the dollar is not as weak as it was after the Plaza Accord, it's hardly a beacon of strength today -- I can only imagine what the balance sheet looks like now, but my guess is it's not healthy.

[alfredo]

13. will the tax payer see any tax cut because they no long have

to pay for upkeep for the roads? Or do we keep paying for upkeep so the contractors can maximize their profits?

[adriennui]

14. i've finally reached that point where i can't think of anything to say....

is this for real? and how does it help we the american people who use these roads? i seriously am losing all sense of reality.

[yorkiemommie1]

17. me, too

every dang day bring some new absurdity.

[niallmac]

18. OK. If that's the case: Someone, anyone, please buy Interstate 84 thru

Boise Idaho. It is a dilapidated POS. The poor one time super slab needs to be re built from it's foundation up.
C'mon Germany, Lithuania, Aruba someone! Fix our infrastructure!
We Americans are too busy spending our money fytin Terism.

[Miss Chybil]

19. Unbelievable. nt

[OneBlueSky]

20. no one will have to defeat the US militarily . . .

they'll simply keep buying the country, piece by piece, until they own enough of it to take control . . .

[rooboy]

21. A friend of mine works for Macquarie Bank.

It's known in Australia as The Millionaire Factory, and similar to US behemoths, has a revolving door for politicians to go from high office straight into their ranks as directors.

The same old game - change the laws, join the bank and cash in.

Macquarie has a huge portfolio. Earlier this year they were looking into purchasing the London Stock Exchange. I believe they also own Sydney Airport.

[Sven77]

22. selling our sovereignty

when paper money becomes worthless from over printing, the elites will have bought all the property in america. tax and toll roads. track, trace, and control.

USAToday - Foreign companies buying U.S. roads, bridges
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-07-15-u.s.-highways_x.htm

http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=2173374

NO NAFTA Superhighway
NO SPP
NO North American Union

http://www.spp.gov
http://www.corridorwatch.com
http://www.nascocorridor.com


Lou Dobbs on the North American Union
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13854.htm

TUCKER: As disturbing as some find SPP, there is legislation in the House introduced by Florida's Katherine Harris that closely resembles the goals of the partnership.

[CJCRANE]

23. I've got a bridge to sell you...nt

[sendero]

24. This country..

... will be third world within 20 years at the rate we are going.

Why don't we sell the statue of liberty and let someone make a theme park out of it?