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Some interesting points in here that I had not considered in a while. Definitely one of the big advantages of the western economies is the cutthroat nature in
by socrates1998 8y ago
Some interesting points in here that I had not considered in a while.
Definitely one of the big advantages of the western economies is the cutthroat nature in which they think about ROI.
If something won't return a profit to a high probability, then it's not built.
Japan has seen problems with the same Soviet top-down style, where there are a lot of excess infrastructure projects throughout Japan, particularly in rural areas.
Japan avoided the Soviet implosion, but it has still gone through a large period of flat growth since the early 90's.
Deflation has been a major problem since 1991 and still is.
China could be the exception to this top-down style and find a way to high growth despite it's inefficiencies, but I am betting that it all catches up to them suddenly. Maybe not for a few years, but it will most definitely happen like it has happened to every country that has adopted the top-down Japanese style modernization.
- taobility 8y agoI don't agree that's the big advantage of western economies, especially for infrastructure project. Actually that's the big disadvantage, and short term of capital economy, as everything is about ROI, in short term. Think about high speed trail in California, the project at that scale, no private company can do that, in additional, it may take several decades to make any profit. Only the government can make such plan and invest on this project, but every four years election make it also impossible.