...(is it better to employ 1000 new 100k a year engineers, or 5000 new skilled and unskilled trade workers?)
I'm of the mind that the more people that can benefit, the better. So in your example
RB, 5000 new jobs would be better than 1000 IMHO.
...and I agree that the U.S. is behind Japan and Europe in high-speed rail and I also agree that private industry could never come up with that kinda dough to fund the projects.
