3 ms·

> One only needs to look at the transport sector in Germany or France and compare it to California's attempt to build high-speed rail California is about the s

> One only needs to look at the transport sector in Germany or France and compare it to California's attempt to build high-speed rail California is about the same size as Germany and less than half the population. Germany has several existing, historical train systems. California, less so. There's a lot going on in that case beyond just California having a lot of digital tech folks.

dragonwriter 7y ago
> California is about the same size as Germany and less than half the population. California is about 20% larger than Germany, in terms of land area, much longer when you look at the longest dimension. Germany is both substantially smaller and more compact for it's land area.
Barrin92 7y ago
>Germany has several existing, historical train systems. California, less so. There's a lot going on in that case beyond just California having a lot of digital tech folks. Yes, but that is the point. Process knowledge is lost when it isn't practised, and the attitude in the US over the last few generations of prioritising so-called 'shareholder value' and tightly concentrated knowledge sectors in the economy over a more general, infrastructure and manufacturing-oriented course is the reason for this. Digital tech is both a symptom and a cause of this, I don't blame it alone obviously. By the way, this was not always the case for the US. The US used to be a world leader in for example rail transportation in the 19th and early 20th century. The changes in the US that have made it fall behind in infrastructure were choices, not fate. If the US wanted it could revitalise that culture. And maybe as a cautionary tale for the US, we have one example on the European periphery, the United Kingdom. A country that went from being a world leader in many sectors to harvesting global IP in one part of the service economy to the detriment of competitiveness in others. The average British worker is now 30% less productive than their German or French counterparts, and internationally British products outside of finance are largely irrelevant.

dragonwriter 7y ago

> California is about the same size as Germany and less than half the population. California is about 20% larger than Germany, in terms of land area, much longer when you look at the longest dimension. Germany is both substantially smaller and more compact for it's land area.

Barrin92 7y ago

>Germany has several existing, historical train systems. California, less so. There's a lot going on in that case beyond just California having a lot of digital tech folks. Yes, but that is the point. Process knowledge is lost when it isn't practised, and the attitude in the US over the last few generations of prioritising so-called 'shareholder value' and tightly concentrated knowledge sectors in the economy over a more general, infrastructure and manufacturing-oriented course is the reason for this. Digital tech is both a symptom and a cause of this, I don't blame it alone obviously. By the way, this was not always the case for the US. The US used to be a world leader in for example rail transportation in the 19th and early 20th century. The changes in the US that have made it fall behind in infrastructure were choices, not fate. If the US wanted it could revitalise that culture. And maybe as a cautionary tale for the US, we have one example on the European periphery, the United Kingdom. A country that went from being a world leader in many sectors to harvesting global IP in one part of the service economy to the detriment of competitiveness in others. The average British worker is now 30% less productive than their German or French counterparts, and internationally British products outside of finance are largely irrelevant.