Did the Legislature spend our bailout money wisely?

This is an interesting little tidbit in Vanity Fair magazine:

“While Washington poured billions into propping up the banks that brought the economy to its knees, the Chinese spent their stimulus billions on an epic 19,000 miles of new railroad track.

“Nearly half that total will go toward completing a web of more than 42 interprovince hyper-speed rail lines that will link almost every major city in the country. The fastest of the new trains travels at 220 miles per hour. That’s speedier than both Japan’s bullet and France’s TGV -- and half again faster than the quickest train in America.

“So China comes out of the economic crisis with a rail system that will be the envy of the world, and America soldiers on with an infrastructure that is resolutely last century -- or, worse, the one that preceded it.

“The crisis also crippled pension funds and the endowments of universities and arts institutions and hobbled the fortunes of cities and states, not to mention small and midsized companies. About the only industry that has recovered from the economic calamity is Wall Street itself, which, thanks to government support and a soaring stock market, regained its footing quickly…”

While I don't agree that we should even have a bailout, I certainly think that it should have been spent more wisely.