The View from Right Field

Probably Not the Best Lincoln Quote for Right Now

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum¹ in Springfield had a quote from Abraham Lincoln at the top of an E-News email I received from them today, along with references to two websites, “CoronaVirus.Illinois.gov” and “PresidentLincoln.Illinois.gov”.  It’s this quote, which I am sure is intended to refer to the pandemic:

“Let us confidently hope that all will yet be well.”

It is a great quote, but given that the date and context of the quote, i.e., it was from Lincoln’s Farewell Address to Springfield on February 11, 1861, I am not sure it is the best quote for right now.
--------
¹ A great place to visit, though you might want to wait until the virus settles down a little

Traveling Can Make Current Events More Current

One of the great joys of travel is going to places where history has happened.  The Pyramids, Machu Pichu, Abraham Lincoln’s home in Springfield, Illinois, the Capitol building in Washington, etc.  Seeing places like these can help you better understand history, as well as giving you a personal connection to events in the past.

But if you are lucky, travel can also take you to places where things are happening now or may happen in the future.  Seeing such places can make current events more interesting and personal and maybe even more understandable.  We were lucky enough to be in West Berlin and East Germany in 1979 and 1982, so when the protests arose and the Wall came down in 1989, we had an appreciation of what was happening that we might not have otherwise had. 

Roots Tours

Ever since Alex Haley’s famous book and miniseries “Roots,” people have said they were going on their own “Roots tour.”¹  Not just African-Americans going to Africa, but people going to Italy or England or countries in Scandinavia.  They want to see where their ancestors came from.  Sometimes they try to find long-lost relatives who stayed behind in the “old country.”  They look for customs or approaches to life from those countries.  For a while, it was “hygge” from Denmark.  Now, some people are talking about “lagom” from Sweden.

We have never gone on a trip like that.²  In fact, when people say they are going on a Roots tour, I respond that we have gone on a Roots tour – to Cooperstown.  To the Hall of Fame.  While that is a bit of a joke, it is also sort of true.³ 

Goodbye, Berlin

Berlin.  My favorite city.  But I think it may be time to say goodbye.  The first time we went to Berlin was May of 1979.  The West Germans were trying Ostpolitik, but the Cold War was still on.  The Soviet Union would invade Afghanistan by the end of the year, and Poland would impose martial law two years later.

We were on a three-week driving trip of Germany – or should I say, Germanys.  In addition to Munich, Heidelberg, and the Rhine, we wanted to see the Luther sites, like Wittenberg and Eisenach, so we had to go into East Germany.  But first, we went to Berlin.  In West Berlin (or Westberlin, as the East Germans called it), we went to the Wall and looked at the Brandenburg Gate on the other side.

Renting a Car in Mexico and New Zealand: The Role of Trust in Economic Efficiency and Cultural Differences

I recently read a book by Russ Roberts¹, in which he talked about the importance of trust in life, both to make life nicer² and to make economic life easier (and better).  Our experiences in renting a car in Mexico (we went to the Yucatan peninsula in January 2015) and in New Zealand (in 2014) are a good example of Mr. Roberts’ point.

When we were in New Zealand, we took the ferry from Wellington to Picton, at the top of the South Island.  We were going to pick up a car at the ferry terminal in Picton.  There was a long line at each rental agency (a lot of people had taken the ferry).  We were renting from Avis.  When we got to the front of the line, the people at the desk just gave us the keys, told us where the car was, and said to come back if there are any problems with it.  When we turned the car in three weeks later at the Christchurch airport, it was much the same: Here are the keys; send me the bill; good-bye.

The process in Mexico was very different.  The line at the Avis counter in the airport in Cancun was much shorter, but it took much longer.  Part of that may be that things go at a little slower pace in Mexico, but most of it was due to a lack of trust.  It took the guy ahead of me a long time to return his car because they had found a small scratch they said was not on the car when he picked it up and he hadn’t purchased the insurance.

Why Liberals Love High-Speed Rail

In last week’s Newsweek George Will analyzed why so many liberals (a/k/a progressives) like trains.  He concluded that liberals like trains

“[b]ecause progressivism’s aim is the modification of (other people’s) behavior.

… [T]he real reason for progressives’ passion for trains is their goal of diminishing Americans’ individualism in order to make them more amenable to collectivism.

To progressives, the best thing about railroads is that people riding them are not in automobiles, which are subversive of the deference on which progressivism depends. Automobiles go hither and yon, wherever and whenever the driver desires, without timetables. Automobiles encourage people to think they – unsupervised, untutored, and unscripted – are masters of their fates. The automobile encourages people in delusions of adequacy, which make them resistant to government by experts who know what choices people should make.

Time was, the progressive cry was ‘Workers of the world unite!’ or ‘Power to the people!’ Now it is less resonant: ‘All aboard!’”

But I think Mr. Will may be trying too hard.  I don’t think that for most liberals the reasons are quite as dramatic as Mr. Will says.  Rather, I think the answer is because trains are so – European.

When Americans, or at least liberal/progressive Americans of a certain age, think of trains, they don’t think of the Empire Builder or El Capitan or Broadway Limited.  They think of the trains they rode on their trips to Europe after college and when they were young.  They would buy a Eurorail pass, and they would crisscross Europe (or at least the western part of it) on “holiday” (as they say in Europe).  Gas cost too much (because of taxes), planes were ridiculously expensive (because airline deregulation came so much later to Europe), and the trains ran on time.

It was fantastic – and so sophisticated (spelled “European”).  Back home we had these big old cars and pollution and sprawl.  It was so boring and wasteful, and it wasn’t European.

Except that things are different here because, well, we live in a different country.  In Europe gas costs more than double what it costs here.  People live closer together.  And there are more people in less space, which makes trains more practical there.

The fact that the trains in Europe don’t pay for themselves doesn’t matter for American tourists because we don’t stay long enough to pay the taxes that pay the subsidies.  And for that matter, the trains, at least in Germany, don’t run on time anymore.  Deutsche Bahn is now known not for punctuality but for being late (assuming it runs at all, which in some cases it didn’t this past winter).

But high-speed rail combines nostalgia for the train trips of one’s youth with “European sophistication” to become a slam dunk for liberals/progressives.  And the fact that federal and state governments, which don’t seem to have a lot of spare money right now, are going to pay to build it and will then have to pay to subsidize it, because it will lose money, doesn’t matter.  High-speed rail just feels good.