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> That's silly. 15 years ago, China celebrated finally being able to domestically make a ball point pen. Why? > Because the steel ball needs to be a perfect sph
by tw1984 3y ago
> That's silly. 15 years ago, China celebrated finally being able to domestically make a ball point pen. Why?
> Because the steel ball needs to be a perfect sphere, and no one in China could produce such finely honed materials prior to then.
This rumor has been refuted many times. It is not hard core science to produce such "finely honed material", no one bothered to make it because the total market volume is way too small for typical modern steelmakers. Only 100 tons of such "finely honed material" is consumed in China each year and it is declining for obvious reasons.
There were heated debate in China for the particular matter - should China enter all such tiny specific segment to compete with every country. You don't need a smart brain to come to the right conclusion here.
> If something has value, and would this ever have value!!, trillions will be spent, over 20 years, making it cheap to do.
Obviously this is not the case.
Americans are not building high speed rails, not because it doesn't bring in the so called value, it is because such investment would threat the interests of those airliners. How much the US invested in high speed rail in the last 20 years compared to its total $ spent on wars?
It is also lagging on productions of EVs, maybe EVs don't bring in values? LOL
> And those improvements in manufacturing capabilities will spread through all otger industries, the entire ecosystem improving itself over and over.
until you get yourself de-industrialized and then it is over.
- marcinzm 3y ago>not because it doesn't bring in the so called value It doesn't bring in so called value versus the investment assuming actual final costs of building such a system. Except the north east however the cost of buying land to build it there and revamping existing infra like stations is a massive. People keep wishing it did but a system that is slower (door to door) and less convenient (lack of local public transit) than airplanes isn't particularly good.
- inglor_cz 3y ago"Americans are not building high speed rails, not because it doesn't bring in the so called value, it is because such investment would threat the interests of those airliners. How much the US invested in high speed rail in the last 20 years compared to its total $ spent on wars?" America is pretty bad at building other infrastructure, too. NY subway does not threaten interests of airlines, but its expansion is notoriously slow and expensive.
- toast0 3y ago> Americans are not building high speed rails, not because it doesn't bring in the so called value, it is because such investment would threat the interests of those airliners. Aquiring the rights of way is an enormous undertaking due to rule of law. Getting construction permits is an enormous undertaking due to environmental law. Determining the path and stops is a giant political mess because nobody wants to miss out on being on the rail, but if you let everyone on, it won't be high speed anymore. The whole thing won't have a lot of return until decades after it begins and only if it offers good comparative utility and value when it's delivered, which depends on the state of roads, air travel, virtual presence, and other things that affect demamd for travel.