The US could have nice infrastructure, but spending trillions of dollars on perpetual wars by fueling endless hatred is more profitable. China has 45,000km of high-speed rail

The US could have nice infrastructure, but spending trillions of dollars on perpetual wars by fueling endless hatred is more profitable. China has 45,000km of high-speed rail
byu/wakeup2019 ineconomy



by wakeup2019

42 comments

  3. There are train/ vehicle wrecks often in the USA. They are going slow in comparison. Imagine the carnage with bullet trains.

  4. We have a decent freight rail network and it is very profitable.

    Passenger rail in the US is complicated because we live in such sparsely populated locations spread over such a large geographic area.

    Trips over 300 or 350 miles are probably better to do by air and trips under 150 miles are probably better to do by car or bus, in the US.

    That said, there are a few corridors where the numbers pencil out. Obviously the NEC (Boston to DC) exists and makes a nice operating profit. But also SF to LA (which we are building), Chicago to Detroit (which exists but needs work), Portland to Vancouver BC (exists but very slow), Dallas to Houston (might exist in 2040), and Dallas to San Antonio (exists but slow and gets one train per direction per day).

    People keep saying Brightline Florida is working but man they are missing their ridership forecasts massively. They keep cutting their ridership forecasts and are still missing them by a mile.

  5. Look, yes the U.S. has engaged in some idiotic wars, but let’s not act like China is the beacon of human rights or a great place to live.

  6. >Republicans when its time to build something that actually benefits bottom 99%

    *sOcIaLiSm* *how will we pay for it*

    >Republicans when there is no causes belli -> invent fake WMD conspiracy. Otherwise war in Vietnam, Korea, Middle east and other mini proxy skirmishes.

    *if youre not with us youre against us*

    Look im all for building infrastructure and “taking care of our own” but its all a bluff, the moment its time to do it we already seen the response.

  7. I realize the US has a problem with implementing rail across the country, but why can’t they launch high speed rail in states and then try to connect it later if the state launches are successful? I feel like Ohio would be a good use case. Do Akron – Cleveland – Columbus – Cincinnati. Hell, you could add Pittsburgh and Detroit too. I would happily take a high speed train from Cleveland to Columbus or Cincinnati over driving.

  8. This is bait. For better or for worse, the United States was developed as a car centric society, it’s in our foundation, and not easy to change. We already have massive investment in surface roads and airlines. The goal now is to make those modes of transportation much cleaner.

  9. China is spending massively on building the world’s largest navy so that it can invade Taiwan right now. Apparently they can walk and chew gum at the same time.

  10. America spends its money on crappy roads.

    In addition to war.

  11. No, because high speed infrastructure would bring opportunities to the lower class. We can’t have that

  12. … and China is building military as crazy with very concrete plans for annexing Taiwan. Also bullying Philippines, Burma/Myanmar, Tibet, Mongolia and most everyone they share a border with.

    Also they are exactly in this point in time struggling with the crippling debt they have put themselves in to finance all their projects. Their economy is struggling extremely hard now, especially their property sector.

    But yes, the US for sure could improve in infrastructure investments.

  13. Bullet trains in China are great and comfortable. Used them around 10 times.
    But where did they get so much money to build this infrastructure?

  16. I use to feel the same way. In a bubble, yes it makes zero sense as to why we are spending so much money being world police and holding a strategic military presence all over the world. But obviously we don’t live in a bubble and our economy is heavily reliant on globalization. The Middle East, particularly the Gulf of Oman is the most important trade route in the world. It’s where the vast majority of the world energy supply comes from. A key role of the U.S. is to keep a strong presence and protect this area at almost all costs. We can argue that other countries and militaries should do more to help us, but our military is far superior and competent to anyone else and frankly we just don’t trust anyone else with this responsibility.

    So in short, we spend a lot on defense but there is a completely valid and strategic reasoning for it. If Iran decides to blockade this area we can shut it down in a matter of minutes and avoid disruption in the world’s energy supply.

  18. Cool, now do apartment buildings that arnt made of tofu

  20. We could also do it if the rich and corporations paid their fair share in taxes, not just the middle class!

  21. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), aka Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), was signed into law by President Biden on November 15, 2021. The law authorizes $1.2 trillion for transportation and infrastructure spending with $550 billion of that figure going toward “new” investments and programs.

    Not too shabby.

  22. Let’s go Brandon !!!!! Democracy ! Trump is Hitler! Putin BadBoy. I like Ice Cream 🍦

  24. The Chinese Communist Party also spends a lot of money genociding Muslims and turning black people into disappearing acts.

  25. China is an authoritarian dictatorship. If they want trains, they build them.

    In a liberal democracy, funding needs to be voted. Workers are free to choose what they want to work so construction projects have to bid for labor in an open market.

    Blaming foreign policy to compare infrastructure building with a country that can just easily assign hundred of thousands of workers to a project is an ignorant and silly conclusion.

  26. I’m generally against 95% of discussions around “transportation needs.”

    This is a need. Traveling by car has become absolutely ridiculous in many big cities. Airports aren’t getting a lot better either. Another option like this, would absolutely be beneficial. Unfortunately, we will never do it.

  27. Bait but I’ll go. No one else is dumb enough to go nearly $1T in debt to build out trains to useless places. 

  28. Translation:

    Hello friend, I am very Western West-man and not Ruski troll 🙂

    China good, USA bad, da?

  29. Trump will build us a train, and get China to pay for it 🇺🇸

  33. You’re right about our military budget – and the vast array of lobbyists who own congress.

    But don’t be so envious of China. Their economy is in free fall and many of those beautiful infrastructure projects were shoddily done and chosen for reasons that had little to do with need – they were boondoggles – often highly corrupt ones. China’s property market is crashing, some of their largest companies going bankrupt… it’s not pretty.

  34. *“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”*
    – President Dwight D. Eisenhower, January 17, 1961

    Look what we had for our choices in 2020, Trump (Bolton, Pompeo Espry) or Biden(Nuland). Ike’s warning has manifested itself as the Project for the New American Century and its [Wolfowitz Doctrine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfowitz_Doctrine ‘The document outlined a policy of unilateralism and pre-emptive military action to suppress potential threats from other nations.’).

    This two-party system doesn’t give us an option to vote against these policies. The fix to this is instant runoff/ranked voting. Restraint of competition in politics delivers mediocre results much like restraint of competition does in general

  35. Look what China has done in the last 30 years, pretty amazing imo. They modernized and utilized technology to build some amazing infrastructure projects for their citizens- I’m stuck in grid lock traffic and wasting 5 hours back and forth on a commute

  36. Car means freedom right. It’s so important for Americans

  37. Even if we had more money to spend, we would spend it first on suburban infrastructure, highway expansions, and entitlement programs for seniors before anything else. The US already has $8 trillion of total public spending, which is close to 50% of GDP.

  38. Please take your mouthbreathing crap propaganda somewhere else. R/China, maybe.

  40. If the country wasn’t $35 Trillion in debt, the US could build infrastructure.

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  42. No, this isn’t a planted article designed to stir you up. Not at all.

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