There is no magic in this world like you seem to want to pretended. All of those things simply boil down to people. Property rights only exist because people say they do, environmental reviews only exist because people say they do, skilled workers are, well, literally people, and the necessary capital is already created. If the capital is being directed to other purposes, it is only because people decided those purposes are more important. All of this can change if the people want it to.
> HN users sometimes have this weird fantasy that with enough political will it's possible to make enormous changes but that's simply not how things operate in a republic with a dual sovereignty system.
Hell, the republic and dual sovereignty system itself only exists because that's what people have decided upon. Believe it or not, it wasn't bestowed upon by some mythical genie in the sky. The people can change it all on a whim if the will is there.
The will isn't there of course, as there is no reason for the will to be there given that there are better options anyway, but if the will was there it'd be done already.
Right now and since 1979!
I'll grant you that people love to plan, but it turns out that they don't love putting on their boots and picking up a shovel nearly as much.
> But outside of Nevada, there are many equivalent distance routes in the US between major population centers, including
And there is nothing stopping those lines from being built other than the lack of will to do it. As before, the will doesn't exist because better options exist.