reading these tweets after finishing this post in c/indigenous has really got me thinking thoughts
hills or mountains
Switzerland famous for not having trains
Also, as if digging through hills and mountains has ever been an issue since the invention of dynamite.
Japan, famous for not having trains
Fuck the US even figured it out
Americal railways are in such shit condition and so poorly used, that ‘figured it out’ may be a bit too much.
Prior to World War II, we had it figured out. The destruction of “it” was an intentional political project (insert comparison maps of a major city’s trolley lines in 1921 compared to 2021 here).
America is so trash at building trains that they needed the Chinese to do it even back in the 1800s
Planes are bad because you need to land at an airport and there aren’t airports everywhere.
Cars bad because you need to dig in order to make 20 lane wide highways.
The only good transportation is the helicopter.
Specifically an Osprey.
The only good transportation is a Lada Niva 1985
The only good transportation is boat, and even boat is bad because the entire planet isn’t water.
nah, dont be silly, roads or airports dont need to be built, they just sort of appear.
When the concepts of scale and efficiency defy your understanding
He’s a Hyperloop enthusiast. So yes.
Sorry sweetie, you wouldn’t understand, I have a PhD, didn’t you look at my Twitter display name?
Literally the most efficient form of land-based transport ever invented. Steel wheels on steel rails have very low rolling resistance.
NAH, it’s bad because you can’t clog up the lines with masses of inefficient, tiny, personal trains.
Also, you have to dig through hills and mountains to lay track - you definitely don’t need to do that for highways (except for all the ones that you do)“THE PARAGON OF POOR ECONOMIC CHOICES”?
Economically, there were initial concerns, particularly outside China, over the high-speed rail’s cost, debt and profitability. However, research by the Paulson Institute has estimated the net benefit of the high-speed rail to the Chinese economy to be approximately $378 billion, with an annual return on investment of 6.5%.
, particularly outside China
capitalists mad 'cause bad
This is what happened with bike lane too. Naysayers say that bike actually block people from parking their car and penalize small businesses.
But in reality local businesses profit actually goes up after the lane is set up
Yeah, but what if China had invested its HSR budget into Bitcoin instead?
Ah yes, the perfect investment strategy
for the record the long term average of the s&p 500 is 6.45%, and that is considered a good investment. 6.5% is a smidge better but it should be noted that transportation historically is not very profitable by nature despite the value it provides, so the fact that they have been able to get such good returns for the economy at large is pretty impressive.
This is good context, and I typically avoid the profit conversation on topics like this altogether.
Not everything can be or should be designed and operated around profit. Providing a service costs money. When something is a public service, the benefit that the public receives from operating that service isn’t profit, the benefit they receive is the service.
The whole point of transitioning towards socialism is that we want to be able to organize our labor and put the resources that we generate as a society towards projects that give some kind of benefit to us, not just towards projects that can turn a profit for people who privately own the economy.
Shouldn’t rail be more necessary than ever with global population having risen 8x since the invention of the steam locomotive and a consistently increasing % of people living in urban environments? Cars are more useful when you live in a sprawled out town in the middle of fucking nowhere and there aren’t a thousand people in your area trying to get to work at the same time as you.
The roads here are just disintegrating they took all the money away from the department of transportation and are trying to make everyone go back to the office
Every single year on my 10 feet above see level flat road highway has half its lanes closed for 1-2 months in order to repair the potholes that form every single year from weather and weight.
This moron thinks digging isn’t a vital aspect of building roads?
I wonder what he thinks all those rock faces right next to roads are.
This isn’t the type of person that’s ever had to consciously engage with the earth on its own terms. They walk on pavement, they get on an airplane and arrive at their destination (abusing workers if there’s a weather related delay), they definitely don’t dig holes.
I don’t need to be lectured by a guy with a bluecheck about poor economic decisions
“Bad economic decisions”
The lizard people will never forgive China for standing up for itself. They kept the Qing alive indefinitely because it forced masses of starving and immiserated people to become guest laborers, “coolies” for Western capitalists. Reform Era economic liberalization wasn’t enough; Unless Dow Chemical is dictating the environmental policy of Guangxi, China will always bear the original sins of authoritarianism and bad economics, regardless of how prosperous or stable it is.
If the paragon of poor economic choices is overtaking you economically, how truly below awful is your country doing?!
Dude’s Australian. His brain is beyond poisoned.
When society treats these people like the infants they are, we might actually make some progress. Instead, we entertain every crackpot idea with mountains of VC money and government grants while shunning superior, already-existing technology. And I’m sure it would surprise these morons to find out that trains are still improving significantly and we’re not still riding what were essentially steam powered bombs. I know it’s all to sustain car supremacy but fuck, I just want one city council to treat the carbrains and NIMBYs like the adult children they are. Escort them to the play room with the hot wheels and lincoln logs and tell them to make their model town and city council will take a Polaroid and hang it on the fridge.
The American economy is dependent on massive freight rail networks.