Side observation, non-related but was brought up in the article: "Taiwan is a far poorer place than California — with median household income just one-fourth o

Side observation, non-related but was brought up in the article: "Taiwan is a far poorer place than California — with median household income just one-fourth of ours — but still it managed to afford high-speed rail." The author seems to be ignorant of some context when describing Taiwan in this way -- I learned recently that wages in Taiwan were artificially and structurally depressed in order to enable a competitive export economy. Taiwan is actually not a palpably poorer place except maybe in an absolute dollar sense. Taipei has top notch infrastructure, superior to every large U.S. city in my view (I've visited and seen for myself) The highways are beautiful. They don't skimp on infra spend. Notwithstanding the fact that median household income is rarely good indication of how "poor" a place is, especially when comparing across countries because of local cost of living assumptions. If we compare poverty rates, Taiwan's is 1.78% whereas California's is 18.2%. Taiwan's GDP per capita (PPP) -- not household income -- was $53k in 2018. California's was $66k in 2016. Not that different. Looks like the author was trying to use a bit of rhetorical sleight of hand there to make his point.