Friday, July 21, 2017

They Ask What Socialism Brings #Science #Traffic #Subways

Mention Socialism and just the sound of the word will often start the caterwauling but we are not Pavlov's goldfish and don't respond to ringing bells.

Ref:  famous experiment for people who like such experiments was when he trained goldfish to learn a ringing bell meant it was time to eat.


One of the most impressive examples of Socialism in America was in the New Deal under FDR in the Thirties as America tried to pull out of the Great Depression.  Within that grand campaign was the WPA and that made the Fed the largest employer in America.  (WIKI:  New Deal)

ML, I did notice those WPA stamps on your card and they made a special touch.


Ever since the New Deal, politicians have struck predictable partisan poses regarding whether it was great or awful for America but the fact remains that much of that infrastructure is still in use today.  There was great value returned and you're still receiving it.  In many cases, you drive over it every day.  It's also grown obsolete over the eighty or so years since that time.


In twenty years, Shanghai has built one of the largest subway systems in the world.  (Phys.org:  Tunnel visions: China bets big on subways as cities expand)



In 2001, four mainland Chinese cities including Beijing and Shanghai had rather limited networks. By end-2016 there were around 30, including some of the world's longest and busiest networks, and about a dozen more cities have gotten the green light.

State media reports say Chinese spending on subway construction could top 2 trillion yuan ($295 billion) from 2016-2020 alone.

"(China is seeing) the fastest period in human history for the development of metro systems. It's quite remarkable," said Liu Daizong, a World Resources Institute transport expert in Beijing.

- PO

Socialism deals straight-up with one of the biggest problems facing any city in the world:  traffic.




@davesvanlife, via Business Insider


In the current American world of right wing capitalism, there's an excellent effort toward modernization and traffic relief by Elon Musk and he's doing rather than just shooting off his yap in Washington.  (The Verge:  Elon Musk's boring machine completes the first section of an LA tunnel)

While impressive, the achievements by The Boring Company lag far behind the infrastructural boom taking place in China and also to a lesser extent in Europe.  The EU has been impressive for high-speed rail infrastructure but not so much for subways whereas the Chinese are going after it all.


The longer the overweening obsession with the military prevails in America, the more distant American infrastructure will grow from the modern world.  It's only arithmetic.


On balance, the American model doesn't give you much whereas the Chinese model is making jobs galore to build these things and that work is vitally needed.

Maybe you need a shiny new nuclear submarine but Fort Worth doesn't want one since there's only the Trinity River.  Don't look for anything else in the latest pass at a budget; it isn't there.


Ed:  I haven't heard Progressives in America say this about subways

If not yet, they will.

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