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This might be an overgeneralization in this case... While generally true for developing be developed countries, are you actually familiar with China's infrastr

This might be an overgeneralization in this case... While generally true for developing be developed countries, are you actually familiar with China's infrastructure development practices? If one thing is for sure, it's that there isn't a shortage of bridges, trains, airplanes, and roads... The Chinese government uses infrastructure-building programs to ensure it meets its centrally-planned GDP targets and to make sure everyone has jobs. Economists are actually concerned that the infrastructure is so overbuilt that the costs of future maintenance may make the return on many new infrastructure projects negative. Meanwhile the US is notorious for crumbling infrastructure...

ChrisLomont 8y ago
>are you actually familiar with China's infrastructure development practices? Yes, somewhat. They've poured lots of money into it over decades to catch up to the developed world. They're not likely there yet. A simple example: they're close to the same area as the US, around 4 times the population, yet they have around 2/3 as much road miles. They make less electricity per capita than the US. They have less than half as many miles of train infrastructure than the US. If you look at all sorts of metrics for how much per capita that they have compared to the US (or any first world county), they still lag. So if they want to get to first world levels in many of these areas, they still need to create more infrastructure. As such, they might still get more benefit for certain infrastructure projects than the US. >Meanwhile the US is notorious for crumbling infrastructure... ... among people in the US that complain without understanding how the rest of the world fares. In world rankings the US does very well on quality of infrastructure [1,2]. [1] https://lpi.worldbank.org/international/global?order=Infrastructure&sort=asc https://lpi.worldbank.org/international/global?order=Infrast... [2] http://www3.weforum.org/docs/GCR2016-2017/05FullReport/TheGlobalCompetitivenessReport2016-2017_FINAL.pdf http://www3.weforum.org/docs/GCR2016-2017/05FullReport/TheGl...

ChrisLomont 8y ago

>are you actually familiar with China's infrastructure development practices? Yes, somewhat. They've poured lots of money into it over decades to catch up to the developed world. They're not likely there yet. A simple example: they're close to the same area as the US, around 4 times the population, yet they have around 2/3 as much road miles. They make less electricity per capita than the US. They have less than half as many miles of train infrastructure than the US. If you look at all sorts of metrics for how much per capita that they have compared to the US (or any first world county), they still lag. So if they want to get to first world levels in many of these areas, they still need to create more infrastructure. As such, they might still get more benefit for certain infrastructure projects than the US. >Meanwhile the US is notorious for crumbling infrastructure... ... among people in the US that complain without understanding how the rest of the world fares. In world rankings the US does very well on quality of infrastructure [1,2]. [1] https://lpi.worldbank.org/international/global?order=Infrastructure&sort=asc https://lpi.worldbank.org/international/global?order=Infrast... [2] http://www3.weforum.org/docs/GCR2016-2017/05FullReport/TheGlobalCompetitivenessReport2016-2017_FINAL.pdf http://www3.weforum.org/docs/GCR2016-2017/05FullReport/TheGl...