China Infrastructure Compared To U.S. Infrastructure

*anticipating unshirted rage*

 

You are aware that US aid to Ukraine is roughly 1.5 percent of the federal budget? You are also aware that one of the reasons that China's military budget is lower than America's is because the Chinese rely on conscription for a good percentage of their manpower needs while the US relies on volunteers who (and should be) paid considerably more?

 

I spent a little time in China in the mid 2000's. The people could not have been nicer to us, and I also enjoyed the food and inexpensive prices. The service was really incredible, partly due to prices and partly because the businesses were forced to over-hire according to what I was told.

Downtown Shanghai was great, but the traffic was bad. They had people begging for money and trying to polish my shoes involuntarily to make a buck. We got a little outside of the big city, and we saw dirt roads, and the restaurants were okay with me, but the sanitation was not what we're used to here. It's also not uncommon in China for there to be holes for toilets. Get caught with a gun or bullet and see what happens then too. Cherry picking the good parts of any place isn't that helpful. I mean, the Taj Mahal is beautiful, but poverty is still a serious problem in India.

What strikes me is that the people who have recently started mocking the U.S. due to their perception of its "major cities" seem to be the folks who don't want to live in major cities anyway. If the places you'd like lean more towards a small community or mid size town in West Virginia, for example, you're probably not likely to move to a major city on any continent. I remember thinking that even the relatively "smaller" cities in China were like being in Atlanta. Fun to visit but still too big for me personally.

 

I’ve been to china. Many times. Most of it sucks. Parts of it are fine. Anyone who thinks we’d upgrade switching places has never been there.

 

Our taxes are too damn low. Makes investing in infrastructure hard. Ironically though our aid to Ukraine is providing a great ROI.

 

Some of that stuff looks nice, but I wouldn’t use that video as proof that the US is way behind. China’s infrastructure is no doubt full of malinvestment. Their use of central planning based on authority necessitates such an outcome. An extreme example is their “ghost cities”. How many Ukraine aid packages did they spend on these things?




It’s also undoubtably the case that much of their fancy stuff in inhabited cities is underused. This is the kind of thing that happens when counties are in the boom period of development and the central authority comes up with their own pet projects.

 

There's a valid discussion to be had on military spending vs infrastructure but it's pretty disingenuous to do so in the context of Ukraine. One because this is an issue that far pre-dates the war in Ukraine and two because our aid to Ukraine is primarily in the form of donations of older military equipment.

This just reaks of another attempt to sway public opinion against supporting Ukraine.

 

Aid to Ukraine is selling stuff made by American workers. Nyet?

Now who crashed AtnT

 

40% of the 20 highest revenue tech companies are in the US. 70% of the highest market cap tech companies are in the US. 46% of the largest pharma companies. 75% of the top 20 universities. Seems like the future is still quite firmly based in the US.

 

One problem in the US is that people get mad whenever the government spends money. SO we are left with private investment to build fancy trains etc. Just think about how the state of Florida wanted to build monorails for years but then didn't... also we routinely don't spend enough on infrastructure because we can never get bipartisan support to spend the money. If infrastructure is what is so important to you you should LOVE Joe Biden who spent more on infrastructure than any president in recent memory. The US continues to have some of the best and brightest INVENTING things for the future, but you can't always rely on private industry to PAY for the future. Sometimes the government has got to step in, and unfortunately, we are too politicized to get things done most of the time. Just think about how much of a shit fit republicans would through if Joe Biden recommended building a 100 billion dollar electric train system all over the country to try to replace cars...

OMG they would try to impeach him LOL. Fossil fuel industry would lobby hard against it, etc.

In many states, we also don't charge enough taxes, so there isn't even enough money to maintain what we have. That's especially true at the city level, but it's also pretty at state level as well in many places.

 

Much of the aid we're giving to Ukraine is spent on US military hardware. Meaning, it never leaves the country. Ukraine is also strategically important for several reasons. One, large natural gas deposits. Two, it's the bread basket of Europe. Much of the grain on the continent is grown in Ukraine. And three, Ukraine wants to westernized. Having a strong ally in Eastern Europe that was formerly a part of the Soviet Union would put a giant dent into Putin's plan.

As for infrastructure, China ranks behind the US by any standard. Euro countries rank higher, but part of that is age and, size, and when cities were settled. Most Euro cities are hundreds of years old, or older. Many US cities didn't really expand until post WWII. As a result, Euro cities are connected by public transit. Whereas in the US, major cities like LA, Phoenix, and Atlanta boomed with the advent of the car and air conditioning.

The US Interstate system is actually quite good. So is our air traffic. But rail? Only older, Eastern cities like NY with the subway system or Boston with the T has anything half decent.

 

Proxy war is cheap, especially since you can use other countries’ bodies as cannon fodder.

 

It is stunning to me how easily manipulated the Republi-ban sheep are.

30 million Chinese still live in caves.

Another 120 million live in homes where at least part of the structure is completed by hillside rock and mud.

But yeah, I definitely agree that the Repubi-ban should move to China because it is FAR superior (which, if you live in Louisiana or Mississippi, it probably really is not that different).

 

Reminds me of a Canadian family that moved to Russia thinking the grass was greener. It's almost like I just read that or something....

 

I doubt that the grass is greener. But the subways are cleaner and safer.

 

In addition, China sidesteps the trillions spent in R&D by stealing from us. Why is it that China's military looks like ours in every respect but nothing is unique? They wait for us to draw up the schematics and then they steal them.