this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2025
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Developed high speed rail since 2008 in China vs the US:
I'd be careful with overgeneralizing that. Even though Latin American cultures also push for individualism to some extent, we do have tight-nit communities regardless because of the unified cultures that we have.
I’ve been to China plenty of times, I promise the car culture is alive and well.
We had nice things before.
Got a not potato copy? Or context?
Extent of railway development from 1860 through 1870 to 1890
Gah, America as an empire is past its prime. Look what we had!!!
the story of streetcars in the US is similarly depressing; in the 1900s most large cities had trolly systems.
the automobile companies fixed that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy
I've been to China as part of a company visit. They took us everywhere by car. Even what I would consider walking distance.
I did not see mass transit once.
Shenzen.
Yeah, I don't doubt it exists and probably is well used by the people living there. Just wanted to address the part of the comment saying "China would never allow for a “car culture” in the firsr place" because there sure was a car culture. It felt like an American city.
I'm also aware that Shenzen is different from the rest of China, and, well, that the rest of China is different from the other rest of China.
Yeah that's what happens when all your manufacturing is outsourced there. China is insanely insanely rich now
Still not as rich as the USA.
China's GDP is 17.79 trillion dollars compared to the USA's 27,36 trillion.
There's plenty of money to invest in public infrastructure, but no one wants to do it.
Yeah, just to add, per capita the difference is even starker. The low population density in the US makes it extremely costly to build a high-speed railway from east to west coast, but there is no good reason why there is no railway between LA-Bay Area-Sacremento, and a high-speed rail connection along the East Coast is a no brainer.
USA is very wealthy. It's always a choice what to invest in.