I am always concerned when I see Americans calling on their countrymen to urge

their elected officials to extract wealth from the masses to subsidize the business failures

of the few.

In Ward McCartney's letter to the editor supporting Amtrak, it is obvious that he sees the emotional benefits of Amtrak, but he seems to miss the costs in purely economic terms.

According to Thomas Sowell, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, "Economics is the study of the use of scarce resources which have alternative uses."

I believe most Americans will agree that money in our own pocket is a scarce resource. We also understand that we can spend what little money we have in a variety of different ways.

Like a family budget, the federal budget has limited resources and unlimited ways to use them. We depend on our elected officials to spend our scarce tax dollars wisely (and in accordance with the Constitution) in order to help the greatest number of Americans.

In a free society, citizens can vote two ways: 1) at the ballot box; and 2) with their purchasing decisions. By majority, Americans have voted loud and clear with their wallets that they are unwilling to support Amtrak. Instead, they have demonstrated that they want to spend their hard-earned dollars on other services.

Poor service, inconvenient schedules and lack of access make Amtrak an abject failure. While Amtrak arguably is appreciated by a handful of Americans in places like Whitefish, it is immoral to extract money from all American so an elite can enjoy a form of transportation that the marketplace has rejected. The moral answer is to let the marketplace, not government fiat, decide if America wants Amtrak.

McCartney states in his letter that Amtrak's passenger cars, purchased with taxpayer money, are sitting empty for lack of funds, but Amtrak's sleeper cars are routinely sold out months in advance.

Doesn't it make sense for Amtrak to sell its passenger cars and use the proceeds to buy more sleeper cars? Why would we use taxpayer money to reinforce economic failure?

A careful study of limited resources and their alternative uses is helpful in understanding how to make a business (like Amtrak) successful.

If Americans feel compelled to encourage their elected officials to spend our hard-earned tax dollars on a form of transportation most Americans reject, I urge them to include a list of other government programs they are willing to sacrifice so we can find the limited resources to pay for it.

Joseph D. Coco Jr.

Whitefish