Re:China laying tracks for 1,000km/h maglev trains
by wahern on Friday October 04, 2019 @01:48AM
(#21155140)
None of them could be built today as cheaply, but all the projects built in those countries today are still dramatically cheaper than in the U.S., despite similar or even greater labor and regulatory costs. This has been well reported. The U.S. pays 2x or 3x more than comparable projects in comparable countries.
Ultimately the costs come down to politics. You can see the problem repeated dozens of times in this discussion--"I'd support X if and only if X was exactly what I wanted". That's not a recipe for compromise, and compromise is fundamental to efficient group decision making.
The costs balloon not because labor is too expensive, but because we take too long to build things and are constantly changing things as we go along. Regulations don't get in the way because they're overwhelmingly difficult or costly; regulations get in the way because the regulatory processes are hijacked and abused to stone wall projects.
We can't get things done in the U.S. because our politics are broken, especially at the national level, but even at the local level.
Ultimately the costs come down to politics. You can see the problem repeated dozens of times in this discussion--"I'd support X if and only if X was exactly what I wanted". That's not a recipe for compromise, and compromise is fundamental to efficient group decision making.
The costs balloon not because labor is too expensive, but because we take too long to build things and are constantly changing things as we go along. Regulations don't get in the way because they're overwhelmingly difficult or costly; regulations get in the way because the regulatory processes are hijacked and abused to stone wall projects.
We can't get things done in the U.S. because our politics are broken, especially at the national level, but even at the local level.