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> i.e. high speed rail network instead You want to invest $500B to a high speed rail network which the Chinese could build for $50B?
by sampo 2y ago
> i.e. high speed rail network instead
You want to invest $500B to a high speed rail network which the Chinese could build for $50B?
- mrtksn 2y agoJust commission the Chinese and make it 10X bigger then. In the case of the AI, they appear to commission Sam Altman and Larry Ellison.
- astrange 2y agoThe US has tried to commission Japan for that before. Japan gave up because we wouldn't do anything they asked and went to Morocco.
- inejge 2y agoIt was France: https://www.businessinsider.com/french-california-high-speed-rail-north-africa-biden-trump-2022-10 https://www.businessinsider.com/french-california-high-speed... Doubly delicious since the French have a long and not very nice colonial history in North Africa, sowing long-lasting suspicion and grudges, and still found it easier to operate there.
- creato 2y agoIt doesn't matter who you "commission" to do the actual work, most of the additional cost is in legal battles over rights of way and environmental impacts and other things that are independent of the construction work.
- dutchbookmaker 2y agoMy understanding of the problems with high speed rail in the US is more fundamental than money. The problem is loose vs strong property rights. We don't have the political will in the US to use eminent domain like we did to build the interstates. High speed rail ultimately needs a straight path but if you can't make property acquisitions to build the straight rail path then this is all a non-starter in the US.