And a centrally planned housing economy in the self-described capitalist free-market paradise.

Just because its heavily regulated doesn't mean it is centrally planned. Housing isn't decided at the federal level. Even city and county commissions that largely decide fate of large, new projects have to abide by state laws or executive orders from governors that sometimes overrule them. And as long as you propose a project that fits zoning rules on the specific parcel you own, you get a permit to build your dream house.

And if one city, county or state says no to your commercial or industrial venture, it's nice that you can shop other states that might love to have you.

Centrally planned at the municipal level. Every municipality's city council doubles as a mini-Gosplan which passes edicts down to the plebs about how much housing is to be allowed in their town. What's that, you say? More people want to move in than Gosplan thought? Too bad for them and the housing market.

>And as long as you propose a project that fits zoning rules on the specific parcel you own, you get a permit to build your dream house.

Yes, after the central planners decided that a plot of land is to have a single-family dwelling (subject to restrictions on the number of bedrooms, lot coverage, lot frontage, generous buffers on all 4 sides, building height, etc etc), then you are of course free to build exactly that kind of single family dwelling and no other.

>And if one city, county or state says no to your commercial or industrial venture, it's nice that you can shop other states that might love to have you.

It's also nice for the homeowners to see their property values artificially inflated by artificial scarcity brought about by their little local central planning committee. No one claims a centrally planned economy is bad for everyone. In this case, it's great for the rich and the incumbents.

> the self-described capitalist free-market paradise

Americans have not even identified as this for at least a generation.

Anyone that thinks the US has an insane bureaucracy has never tried to deal with French, German, Chinese, Indonesian, Malaysian, Greek, Italian, or Indian bureaucracy. For those last 6, bribes are a mandatory part of of the process.

Look, at least with the one I had experience of, you knew what you were getting. They would invite you to tea. You grease their palms, and the vast majority of the time, you got what you tacitly agreed to. And you did it after you built, not before. If something went wrong, it was all just haggling on price. Nothing esoteric & labyrinthine with a few warring ideals going up against a hundred petty voices and a handful of corporate interests.

... The french contractors who built the tgv tried working with california in 2011 to build HSR here too. But they backed out, saying the bureacracy was too great and they were going to help Morocco instead. And guess who has high speed rail today? California or Morocco?

Morocco's high speed rail line opened in 2018.

That sounds like a made-up story, given that in 2011 the major impediment to the CA HSR wasn't bureaucracy, it was politics, and the CA HSR authority hadn't yet put any portion of the HSR rail out to bid.

Also, the French company (Alstom) that helped build the Morocco HSR is currently bidding to build the CA HSR...

super made up: https://www.businessinsider.com/french-california-high-speed...