Another HIGHLY successful FAILURE, is the Harry Reid solar project Southwest of Las Vegas, NV. The project consists of hundreds of highly polished mirrors directed at a tower located in the center of the massive acreage. The tower contains salt that would be melted, heating water, to steam, then turning turbines to produce electricity. Since it involved Senator Harry Reid, the actual pricetag was never disclosed, and most likely would have included massive graft. The science was proven, it did melt salt, but the placement was in the middle of the migratory bird route. Birds would fly into the area, and in seconds they would be roasted. There's not a total of how many birds got snuffed out.😅
DIA had a billion dollar overrun, I worked there for 2 years when it was initially built. We would build roads complete with drainage and utility crossings only to be torn out a week after being built. Denver wasn't prepared for a project this size to be built at such a rapid pace. Constantly redesigning things that was already built, people off the streets with no construction background or training hired as inspectors because they had to fulfill minority requirements. Also the time requirements took alot of work away from Colorado based companies. Then to put the evil horse statue that killed the original artist to greet travelers was another terrible decision
Very good video and extremely well research and detail and I’m sure that took a lot of time especially dealing with people who do not want a lot of the details to come out and you live off the taxpayers their entire life as bureaucrats
I'm always told we have to build modern architecture because its cheaper and more practical. Yet I'm always seeing it go over budget and with massive quality issues.
Just think about I. When the government gets involved it costs more and hardly ever gets completed properly. Government can’t run a business or projects.
Narrowing this list down to just ten must have been quite the undertaking. I'm from California, and the high speed rail is the poster child of cost overruns and being way behind schedule.
Now this isn't even built yet but the attempt at high speed rail between Dallas and Houston. Hundreds of millions and not 1 mile laid down. Plus their bypassing the entire I35 corridor for now with no plans ro connect it all the way from Dallas through Austin, SA to Houston.
Government wasting money cross Canada. Here in Fredericton New Brunswick. Fredericton wanted to build a new court house with 6 floors. The price was over $125.000 in price. The city could have refurbished and old centennial building for $65.000 for the court house with a big parking lot
Interstate highways already have land - no need to waste funds on surveys and critter impact studies. Any passenger rail that does not utilize these existing thoroughfares should automatically be defunded. A high speed rail system utilizing either medians in the middle or the side of existing highways, would make them practical, and a far better use of pollution incentive money than individual tax rebates on private vehicles. This, is probably why it’s never suggested.
It has to be the top, worst abuse and waste of funds and I don’t know why people allow this to happen cause you’re never ever gonna get the American individual out of their cars and into public transportation and actually that is what EV pushes and goal is to force people in the public transportation for control over society.
The last several times I visited LA, residents had dozens of signs saying "NO!" to high speed rail. Rich people in Bel-Air say that it's a waste of money & resources, and few people will ride it. Poor people in South Central say that their neighborhoods are going to be demolished to build the track and stations. And both sides are right. Then there are the square miles of productive farmland being replaced by a concrete monstrosity. This is only a pet project for Gov. Gruesome.
love how congress blesses the people on SSI with $12-$20 increases per month each year yet they give themselves huge raises in pay every few years like the $70k per year or $191 dollar per DAY spread over 365 days a year and those in congress only actually work about 165 total days per year so in reality that 70k raise is more like a $424 dollar a day raise which would be nice to earn ourselves and mind you that was ONLY for that 70k pay raise they just gave themselves they currently make 174,000 per year while the leaders make 193,400 per year -- time for the American public to adjust their income levels to a much more fitting and lower number.
Yes, it’s so bad knowing my 16oz package of chips is made in a factory that’s clean, regularly inspected and if a problem does arise, recalls and punishments are available to protect the public. 🙄 All y’all b*tching about government haven’t one single CLUE what would happen without it. You’ve lived a safe life, and it shows.
@@joeylawn36111 Sorry brother. That's pretty shi**y. The so called political leaders screwed a lot of people over and mostly the recipients of such cheap power production. Just rest east at night nobody will be held accountable.
the va needs to stay out of building project it should have been outsourced to civilian contractors fronm the start with an oversight team on site at all time
Idea for nerve one you could do is the elk Grove California mall which never happened where it was supposed to be is now a casino which is called sky River casino the mall open 2008 construction started back in 2006 but due to the recession and 08 building was haltedand stayed like that for almost 14+ years sky River casino is now and it’s one and a half years of operation and building of the casino was really fast. The casino Wilton rancheria Me walk Me walk Indians.
It's a bit unfair to put CHR on this list since it's not completed, and still under construction. It's quite normal for government projects to have cost over-runs either because the people who come up with the initial budget don't know how to count, or they have to deal with delays by various groups either in government, or outside. Just because haters make predictions of doom, does not make the haters correct in every single incident. My guess is that CHR is doing much better than you think, when they hadn't broken ground, Electric Jesus (Elon) just released a sheet of paper with a few drawings of a Victorian era transport idea that has yet to prove useful. But just in the last few weeks, he actually got people to build vehicles that actually moved, and robots remotely controlled by interns. The billionaire so-called genius might know something more than you and the rest of the CHR haters.
And I bet not one of these government bureaucrats who have wasted billions and billions of dollars over decades were ever held accountable. Another reason government should not be involved.
@@GOPRepubliklan There most likely WON'T be a country left in 2026, let alone 2028.... The fat orange orangutan would've probably given it all to Putin.
The California rail project is a massive boondoggle to start with. To make matters worse, the driving distance from LA to San Francisco is 382 miles, flying is 350 miles, but this high-speed rail is 520 miles so that it can serve out-of-the-way Central Valley cities like Stockton and Merced.
If the nation were TRULY SMART, it would've never wasted so many billions of dollars importing Hitler's autobahn and blasting it all throughout the 48 contiguous states, especially through dense urban cores of cities and towns, turning them into death camps with traffic lights.... Also, with air travel, all flights of less than 500 miles should be totally banned, to be replaced by high speed rail; that's if this nation really knew how to move people from point A to point B in an efficient and safe manner.... But it DOESN'T, soooo....
I agree with some of the other commenters that Cal HSR shouldn’t be on your list. You say it’s costing 100s of billions when so far only 11 billion has been spent. Regardless of its completion, the project will provide a great rail link for the Central Valley, electrification between San Francisco and San Jose, and some additional rail projects around Los Angeles.
@@stevenwiggins9267 BIG PHUCKING DEAL! Look at the total NIGHTMARE the interstate stuperhighways have been since the first cupful of concrete was placed for their initial construction; not one single millimetre of these "Hitler strips" have earned so much as a single red cent, but have guzzled a TRILLION DOLLARS ANNUALLY....
I disagree with the claim that California's high speed rail is too expensive. When did American loose it balls for large projects? California needs a high speed rail service. The alternative is to widen existing roads and to expand the compacity of its existing airports. There will be mistakes with the 1st one made but how else are we going to prove its feasibility without building the 1st one.
You must be in 'in-law' to Gov Spendy! There's no way in hell that can be called 'money well spent''! If.... and I mean IF! it's every completed it'll cost trillions of dollars!
@@rayworx BIG PHUCKING DEAL! Look at all the wasted money going into stuperhighways that do nothing but ruin and destroy the urban areas thru which they traverse; also, not one single millimeter of stuperhighway has ever earned its own money, but has always demanded that EVERYONE, regardless of motor vehicle ownership or not, must pay their hard-earned tax dollars into a network they might not be able to use (if they don't own a personal motor vehicle, they're in trouble, since their taxes oversubsidize those with such vehicles, thus providing WELFARE FOR THE RICH!!).
I think it's too soon to call the California high speed rail project wasteful. From what I've read $135 billion is the high end, not the hundreds of billions that was mentioned in the video. Not to mention the fact that high speed rail is faster and cheaper than driving a car. Yes the project is taking a long time to complete, but keep in mind, phase 1 is 520 miles long. With an estimated completion date between 2030 and 2033. Even if it's completed in 2033 that's an average of 28+ miles per year since construction started in 2015. For perspective the 20 mile interstate lane expansion project, that I pass by when I visit my parents, has been going on for almost a decade now. As for the declining populations. San Francisco's population did decline after the pandemic, but it's currently growing. Meanwhile the population of Los Angeles has experienced no such decline and continues to grow. There's also a private high speed rail between LA and Las Vegas that's projected to start service in 2028. All 3 indicate that demand will increase, not decrease. I think it's too soon to call the California high speed rail a wasteful government project. It seems to be on pace for completion and we haven't seen it in operation
Agree to disagree! Tren Maya in Mexico is up and running for about 10 billion dollars and it got started in 2018. These projects don’t have to take as long and cost as much as we’ve become accustomed to in America. The actual construction part can be done pretty quick, if the administrative and bureaucratic parts are handled. You are absolutely right that no one can really make any definitive judgements about what’s going to happen decades from now, but to me we already know it’s a waste based on the simple fact that we have to ask questions like “how many decades will it take to complete?” … and “will it cost 135 billion dollars or 250 billion dollars?” Rail infrastructure is great and it would be fantastic if we had better, more efficient systems than we currently have. To me though the numbers on this one are so far out compared to other similar projects it just doesn’t make sense to me.
@@BuildingTales it’s a dumb comparison. They are built to different building standards to begin with, Tren maya was only built to support trains travelling at 100mph while chsr is being built to support trains traveling 220 mph or more. Higher the speed, higher the cost to build. And American workers are paid five times more than their mexican counterparts. Tren maya is more comparable to brightline florida that travels 110 mph than chsr at 220mph.
Did you sit in on the meeting where these projects were approved? Then you dont know what was said. What information was presented. Nor the reason the presenter thought this project was a good idea & well worth the cost. it is easy to be an armchair quarterback and giving your uninformed opinion. REMEMBER>>> Opinions are worth exactly what you pay for them. !
Not true! The Cali hi speed rail was started by Pete Wilson and his republican pals who controlled California at the time. The Portland boondoggle was also started under republican controlled government. I’ll bet if you looked into the others you’d find the same. Stop trying to spread fake political division.
Too bad the California high speed rail isn't finished. Gavin Newsom could have used it to escape when the FBI and Justice Department enters San Francisco to arrest him In 2025.
Biggest waste of money in government are all the Politicians in office.
Waste is of no consequence to governments as it is not their money they are wasting.
Another HIGHLY successful FAILURE, is the Harry Reid solar project Southwest of Las Vegas, NV. The project consists of hundreds of highly polished mirrors directed at a tower located in the center of the massive acreage. The tower contains salt that would be melted, heating water, to steam, then turning turbines to produce electricity.
Since it involved Senator Harry Reid, the actual pricetag was never disclosed, and most likely would have included massive graft.
The science was proven, it did melt salt, but the placement was in the middle of the migratory bird route. Birds would fly into the area, and in seconds they would be roasted.
There's not a total of how many birds got snuffed out.😅
the thing with ranking govt waste is, by the time you compile, the list is outdated....let that sink in
Man I just listened to one of your older videos and it was rough. Youve come a long way. All your newer content is great 👍 ty.
Thanks! Definitely a big learning curve to all this video and social media stuff!
Superconducting Super Collider in Texas
DIA had a billion dollar overrun, I worked there for 2 years when it was initially built. We would build roads complete with drainage and utility crossings only to be torn out a week after being built. Denver wasn't prepared for a project this size to be built at such a rapid pace. Constantly redesigning things that was already built, people off the streets with no construction background or training hired as inspectors because they had to fulfill minority requirements. Also the time requirements took alot of work away from Colorado based companies. Then to put the evil horse statue that killed the original artist to greet travelers was another terrible decision
Very good video and extremely well research and detail and I’m sure that took a lot of time especially dealing with people who do not want a lot of the details to come out and you live off the taxpayers their entire life as bureaucrats
I'm always told we have to build modern architecture because its cheaper and more practical. Yet I'm always seeing it go over budget and with massive quality issues.
Just think about I. When the government gets involved it costs more and hardly ever gets completed properly. Government can’t run a business or projects.
Exactly! And people want them to run Healthcare, which would mean Nocare.
Cost more because of red tape and more regulations
Less government use private loco industries
Hell government cannot run government.
Yet for some reason, they appeared to have NO PROBLEM WHATSOEVER while importing Hitler's autobahn and blasting it thru our urban areas....
In the future you should check out the Randy Parton theater, which nearly bankrupted the city of Roanoke Rapids, NC.
Will do, appreciate the suggestion!
How about the big dig in Boston
People made money on all these projects. People with the right connections of course
Narrowing this list down to just ten must have been quite the undertaking.
I'm from California, and the high speed rail is the poster child of cost overruns and being way behind schedule.
There were certainly a lot of them... could definitely do a part 2 (and 3 and 4)
Yet bad money is thrown after worse when it comes to oversubsidizing rolling surfaces for the automobile (car, BUS, and TRUCK)....
Now this isn't even built yet but the attempt at high speed rail between Dallas and Houston. Hundreds of millions and not 1 mile laid down. Plus their bypassing the entire I35 corridor for now with no plans ro connect it all the way from Dallas through Austin, SA to Houston.
Yet look at the tens of BILLIONS of dollars they're planning on wasting on expanding the STUPERHIGHWAYS in the area!
Government wasting money cross Canada. Here in Fredericton New Brunswick. Fredericton wanted to build a new court house with 6 floors. The price was over $125.000 in price. The city could have refurbished and old centennial building for $65.000 for the court house with a big parking lot
Hawaii Rail.... its a fucking mess
Interstate highways already have land - no need to waste funds on surveys and critter impact studies. Any passenger rail that does not utilize these existing thoroughfares should automatically be defunded. A high speed rail system utilizing either medians in the middle or the side of existing highways, would make them practical, and a far better use of pollution incentive money than individual tax rebates on private vehicles. This, is probably why it’s never suggested.
Come to Australia. We would have triple the amount of this.😊
Always quadruple or quadruple the government cost estimates.
So-called "Value Engineering" is nothing but a hustle.
As a veteran the VA is an absolute embarrassment.
Indiana's highway bridge that went to nowhere.
First, Love your videos!
Thanks, appreciate it!
The MOX project at Savanna River Site in SC
The bullet train in CA. 24billion waste
It has to be the top, worst abuse and waste of funds and I don’t know why people allow this to happen cause you’re never ever gonna get the American individual out of their cars and into public transportation and actually that is what EV pushes and goal is to force people in the public transportation for control over society.
100 BILLION
@GKelley-gn1ul 24 already spent
Yet Californians voted for it twice!
The last several times I visited LA, residents had dozens of signs saying "NO!" to high speed rail. Rich people in Bel-Air say that it's a waste of money & resources, and few people will ride it. Poor people in South Central say that their neighborhoods are going to be demolished to build the track and stations. And both sides are right. Then there are the square miles of productive farmland being replaced by a concrete monstrosity. This is only a pet project for Gov. Gruesome.
They're everywhere:
Solindra
Yucca mountain
Garrison diversion
All good ideas!
@BuildingTales they were all 100% government failures and theft.
@@BuildingTales NOPE!
13:33 look at that mess. And the guy walking probably to get steps in while nothing gets done. 🤬🤬🤬
You might want to consider the Honolulu Rapid Transit Program on Oahu, HI.
You’d think the VA never built a hospital before 🙄
Yeah. Martin Kentucky relocation project. And the building in Virginia for salindra.
love how congress blesses the people on SSI with $12-$20 increases per month each year yet they give themselves huge raises in pay every few years like the $70k per year or $191 dollar per DAY spread over 365 days a year and those in congress only actually work about 165 total days per year so in reality that 70k raise is more like a $424 dollar a day raise which would be nice to earn ourselves and mind you that was ONLY for that 70k pay raise they just gave themselves they currently make 174,000 per year while the leaders make 193,400 per year -- time for the American public to adjust their income levels to a much more fitting and lower number.
The state of Indiana and the city of Evansville toke land for a car dealership
Government itself is a waste
Yes, it’s so bad knowing my 16oz package of chips is made in a factory that’s clean, regularly inspected and if a problem does arise, recalls and punishments are available to protect the public. 🙄
All y’all b*tching about government haven’t one single CLUE what would happen without it. You’ve lived a safe life, and it shows.
Everything Brazil built for the Olympics. I called it, and my family gave me hell at the time. Hows that Brazilian economy looking since then?
Californian here. Knew your #1 before I hit Play. Pinheads.
VA must have some terrible contracting officers.
Any reference of used sources?
Washington Nuclear Project... The only reactor that was actually completed was immediately decommissioned.
And the bondholders got totally $¢rewed getting nothing in return for their investment....ask me how I know....
@@joeylawn36111 Sorry brother. That's pretty shi**y. The so called political leaders screwed a lot of people over and mostly the recipients of such cheap power production.
Just rest east at night nobody will be held accountable.
The Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas
the va needs to stay out of building project it should have been outsourced to civilian contractors fronm the start with an oversight team on site at all time
Gibson County Indiana new Is animal shelter is 3 years behind
Idea for nerve one you could do is the elk Grove California mall which never happened where it was supposed to be is now a casino which is called sky River casino the mall open 2008 construction started back in 2006 but due to the recession and 08 building was haltedand stayed like that for almost 14+ years sky River casino is now and it’s one and a half years of operation and building of the casino was really fast. The casino Wilton rancheria Me walk Me walk Indians.
"San Diego Ash Street scandal"
Entire america is scandal
Look up the Hawaii rail…
Definitely a good one for the next video!
What are the Bottom 10 Most Wasteful Government Projects?
I guess I'll have to make another video for those!
@@BuildingTales Please define what they are.
Ah yes the Bush era, where government cant do anything right became a self fullfilling prophecy. LOL
It's a bit unfair to put CHR on this list since it's not completed, and still under construction. It's quite normal for government projects to have cost over-runs either because the people who come up with the initial budget don't know how to count, or they have to deal with delays by various groups either in government, or outside. Just because haters make predictions of doom, does not make the haters correct in every single incident. My guess is that CHR is doing much better than you think, when they hadn't broken ground, Electric Jesus (Elon) just released a sheet of paper with a few drawings of a Victorian era transport idea that has yet to prove useful. But just in the last few weeks, he actually got people to build vehicles that actually moved, and robots remotely controlled by interns. The billionaire so-called genius might know something more than you and the rest of the CHR haters.
FoxConn in SE Wisconsin was a huge boondoggle.
Definitely didn't go as planned!
Almost every government project could be on this list
ESPECIALLY THOSE GOD-DAMNED STUPERHIGHWAYS!!
All blue
And I bet not one of these government bureaucrats who have wasted billions and billions of dollars over decades were ever held accountable. Another reason government should not be involved.
Sounds like with no prior experience, Hunter Biden is a perfect match for California's high speed train to nowhere.
TRUMP 2028
@@GOPRepubliklan There most likely WON'T be a country left in 2026, let alone 2028....
The fat orange orangutan would've probably given it all to Putin.
The California rail project is a massive boondoggle to start with. To make matters worse, the driving distance from LA to San Francisco is 382 miles, flying is 350 miles, but this high-speed rail is 520 miles so that it can serve out-of-the-way Central Valley cities like Stockton and Merced.
If the nation were TRULY SMART, it would've never wasted so many billions of dollars importing Hitler's autobahn and blasting it all throughout the 48 contiguous states, especially through dense urban cores of cities and towns, turning them into death camps with traffic lights....
Also, with air travel, all flights of less than 500 miles should be totally banned, to be replaced by high speed rail; that's if this nation really knew how to move people from point A to point B in an efficient and safe manner....
But it DOESN'T, soooo....
you forgot the border wall.
I agree with some of the other commenters that Cal HSR shouldn’t be on your list. You say it’s costing 100s of billions when so far only 11 billion has been spent. Regardless of its completion, the project will provide a great rail link for the Central Valley, electrification between San Francisco and San Jose, and some additional rail projects around Los Angeles.
You're dreaming.
@@stevenwiggins9267 BIG PHUCKING DEAL!
Look at the total NIGHTMARE the interstate stuperhighways have been since the first cupful of concrete was placed for their initial construction; not one single millimetre of these "Hitler strips" have earned so much as a single red cent, but have guzzled a TRILLION DOLLARS ANNUALLY....
I disagree with the claim that California's high speed rail is too expensive. When did American loose it balls for large projects? California needs a high speed rail service. The alternative is to widen existing roads and to expand the compacity of its existing airports. There will be mistakes with the 1st one made but how else are we going to prove its feasibility without building the 1st one.
You must be in 'in-law' to Gov Spendy! There's no way in hell that can be called 'money well spent''! If.... and I mean IF! it's every completed it'll cost trillions of dollars!
@@rayworx Your belly is yellow. Lecture me when they finally find a way to connect two CA cities with high speed rail.
@@rayworx BIG PHUCKING DEAL! Look at all the wasted money going into stuperhighways that do nothing but ruin and destroy the urban areas thru which they traverse; also, not one single millimeter of stuperhighway has ever earned its own money, but has always demanded that EVERYONE, regardless of motor vehicle ownership or not, must pay their hard-earned tax dollars into a network they might not be able to use (if they don't own a personal motor vehicle, they're in trouble, since their taxes oversubsidize those with such vehicles, thus providing WELFARE FOR THE RICH!!).
Anything from the VA is a Waste (and a Big Joke)
Ukraine should be on the top of this list
I think it's too soon to call the California high speed rail project wasteful.
From what I've read $135 billion is the high end, not the hundreds of billions that was mentioned in the video. Not to mention the fact that high speed rail is faster and cheaper than driving a car.
Yes the project is taking a long time to complete, but keep in mind, phase 1 is 520 miles long. With an estimated completion date between 2030 and 2033. Even if it's completed in 2033 that's an average of 28+ miles per year since construction started in 2015. For perspective the 20 mile interstate lane expansion project, that I pass by when I visit my parents, has been going on for almost a decade now.
As for the declining populations. San Francisco's population did decline after the pandemic, but it's currently growing. Meanwhile the population of Los Angeles has experienced no such decline and continues to grow. There's also a private high speed rail between LA and Las Vegas that's projected to start service in 2028. All 3 indicate that demand will increase, not decrease.
I think it's too soon to call the California high speed rail a wasteful government project. It seems to be on pace for completion and we haven't seen it in operation
Agree to disagree! Tren Maya in Mexico is up and running for about 10 billion dollars and it got started in 2018. These projects don’t have to take as long and cost as much as we’ve become accustomed to in America. The actual construction part can be done pretty quick, if the administrative and bureaucratic parts are handled.
You are absolutely right that no one can really make any definitive judgements about what’s going to happen decades from now, but to me we already know it’s a waste based on the simple fact that we have to ask questions like “how many decades will it take to complete?” … and “will it cost 135 billion dollars or 250 billion dollars?”
Rail infrastructure is great and it would be fantastic if we had better, more efficient systems than we currently have. To me though the numbers on this one are so far out compared to other similar projects it just doesn’t make sense to me.
@@BuildingTales
it’s a dumb comparison.
They are built to different building standards to begin with,
Tren maya was only built to support trains travelling at 100mph while chsr is being built to support trains traveling 220 mph or more.
Higher the speed, higher the cost to build.
And American workers are paid five times more than their mexican counterparts.
Tren maya is more comparable to brightline florida that travels 110 mph than chsr at 220mph.
@@BuildingTalesTren Maya isn’t HSR, it’s insanely less complicated project.
ROFL... Florida did it right. Brightline FTW. Dopes in California can't do any infrastructure project right.
@@BlackMan614 Brightline is not high speed rail, it’s conventional like most Amtrak routes.
Did you sit in on the meeting where these projects were approved? Then you dont know what was said. What
information was presented. Nor the reason the presenter thought this project was a good idea & well worth
the cost. it is easy to be an armchair quarterback and giving your uninformed opinion.
REMEMBER>>> Opinions are worth exactly what you pay for them.
!
Isn’t it interesting that most of the boondoggles are in democrat cities.. coincidence?
No it isn't. Democrats are corrupt to the core. Oh, rino's aren't far behind.
It's even more interesting that the worst boondoggle is a republican-controlled government....
Not true! The Cali hi speed rail was started by Pete Wilson and his republican pals who controlled California at the time. The Portland boondoggle was also started under republican controlled government. I’ll bet if you looked into the others you’d find the same. Stop trying to spread fake political division.
All High-speed rain needs to be Stopped
Just like all governmental oversubsidization going into stuperhighways and air travel....
The children have yet to be born who will ride a High Speed Rail Train from LA to Frisco.
Anyone wonder why all these projects are in Democrat dominated areas?
Yet it's REPUBLICAN government that wastes the most money, especially on what DOESN'T help people....
I know what will make future projects more cost efficient…….DEI! Yes I just heard how these are all the rave now. Gotta get that DEI program going!
Too bad the California high speed rail isn't finished. Gavin Newsom could have used it to escape when the FBI and Justice Department enters San Francisco to arrest him In 2025.
You mean that same "Justice Department" that totally failed to arrest Pete Wilson fot his crimes against humanity?!
kalif. the biggest waste of ALL
The ENTIRE state of California is a waste of money....