In the movie the Field of Dreams staring Kevin Costner, a line was repeated if you build it, they will come. The movie was about baseball and the Kevin Costner character built a baseball field in the corn fields for deceased ballplayers to play baseball. Because it was the movies, the players came to play. In reality, there was no one watching the players and the baseball field was less than profitable. In the real world, if there is a large enough government grant, infrastructure will be built.

In an article by Ken Ritter of the Associated Press, a $12 billion high speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and LA has started construction. The promoters of the rail line suggest that by 2028, millions of people will take the train at a cost of $400 round trip. If you believe the millions or the trains carrying 30,000 people a day, check out the Amtrak trains or Interstate 15 traffic. In 2028, the summer Olympics are to be held in LA.

The government has received $6.5 billion from the Biden administration including a $3 billion grant from infrastructure funds and approval to sell $2.5 billion in tax exempt bonds.

The company building the train is called Brightline West and operates a fast train between Miami and Orlando in Florida. The train will be in the median of I-15 and cut the 4-hour trip by car to 2 hours. Las Vegas is a popular driving destination for Southern Californians and I-15 is often crawling on Sunday traffic.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, if you think about the Field of Dreams there are many ideas in the marketplace searching for dollars, most of them should remain as ideas. However, the dreaming is a good thing in order to make things better. For a dividend investor, the idea actually has to have a market that is willing to buy the product or service at a profit or profit = revenues – expenses. It is simple formula, but before you put your money on a dream, examine the balance sheet to ensure there is money to be made after the government money is used.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.