U.S. economist Nouriel Roubini spoke to reporters earlier this month in Singapore of his trip on the Shanghai-Hangzhou high-speed train, which connects the cities in 40 minutes.
” is half-empty and the brand new station is three-quarters empty. Parallel to that train line, there is also a new highway that looked three-quarters empty. Next to the train station is also the new local airport of Shanghai and you can fly to Hangzhou,” Roubini said.
“There is a no rationale for a country at that economic level to have not just duplication but triplication of those infrastructure projects. The level of it and the cost of it is massive, and a third of it will generate zero cash,” he said.
I actually admire Roubini. His mind contains nothing but economic facts. He cannot see a country or place as a piece of land or as a race, but essentially as flows of cash and the circulation of goods. True, the base of the human world (laws, philosophy, science, religion, education) is economics. But the meaning or end of economic activity (the exchange of things and representation of things) is not the generation of profits. This is the mistake capitalist economist always make. They see one aspect of economics, wealth accumulation, as the entire system.
All we need to do this in the USA is:
1. Low wage, non-union mass labor with zero health, safety or wage rights
2. The ability to confiscate land and/or pay nothing for land and force residents off.
3. Have no environmental impacts studies along the routes.
4. Hold no community meetings and accept no public imput.
5. Have zero transparency on funding sources, land deals, value of investments, ownership of land taken for the trains.
6. Arrest and imprison anyone who questions the state’s plans.
Basically we need a dictatorship. No wonder Charles ‘Mugabe’ Muede is impressed
Okay, this is all well and good, but this does not account for the fact that China is planning for the future growth of the nation, especially with regards to the fact that Shanghai is outgrowing its capacity to house more people. They are developing bedroom communities linked by high speed rail in the outlying areas to service its economic heart (Shanghai). Take the Shanghai airport which in personal experience is usually about 50% empty. consider how empty this new airport will be in 25 years….. This is not bad policy when you account for long-term planning, something we sorely lack here. China has a lot of planning problems but planning for growth in outlying areas of Shanghai is not one of them.
Some see a train as half empty, some see a train as half full.
This is a common mistake. If a train is jam-packed from day one, you’ve underdesigned your capacity.
Economics is about the allocation of scarcity. When Roubini is talking about duplication of infrastructure, he is implicitly talking about things a Chinese person might prefer to have their government build, but won’t. When he says a third of it won’t generate cash, I think that is equivalent to claiming that it will not be providing utility, although I’m a little hazier on that.
And your list differs from the American conservative agenda how, @1?
He’s basing this theory on an anecdote: “I was on that train once, and it was half empty!” Also, he thinks the purpose of mass transit and highway infrastructure is to generate cash. What kind of economist is this?
He should try riding that thing during Chinese New Years …
He may be right. It appears that the train was priced above the ability of people to pay. So former train riders are being forced into other means of transit.
…. Next to the train station is also the new local airport of Shanghai and you can fly to Hangzhou,” Roubini said.
China has not built any new airport in Shanghai beside the Hongqiao and Pudong international airports. And the funny thing is there is no direct flight you can take from Shanghai to Hangzhou.