101–110 of 207 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
We could have that too if our government had unchecked eminent domain power. Is that what we want? Seems to be one or the other.
Helps to have millions of workers willing to work for pennies a day as well. edit: I guess that is redundant under unchecked eminent domain power.
Another weird thing to me, as a foreigner in the US, is the fascination people have for the "troops".
After the first Gulf War, there was a deliberate effort to thank the troops when they got home, which has persisted after 9/11.
This is so true. I went to Shanghai about 3 summers ago right when Denver was finishing up the "A Line" train from Downtown to the Airport. This project cost over a billion dollars and the damn thing can't run smoothly or stay operational. Tons of issues. Meanwhile we took the Maglev train from the Pudong Airport to the Shanghai City Center. The Maglev cost $1.2 billion dollars [1]. The train can travel up to 270 MPH…
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_maglev_train#Construc...
[2] https://www.citylab.com/equity/2015/10/from-250-million-to-6...
This is so true. I went to Shanghai about 3 summers ago right when Denver was finishing up the "A Line" train from Downtown to the Airport. This project cost over a billion dollars and the damn thing can't run smoothly or stay operational. Tons of issues. Meanwhile we took the Maglev train from the Pudong Airport to the Shanghai City Center. The Maglev cost $1.2 billion dollars [1]. The train can travel up to 270 MPH…
>He said the U.S. has wasted over $14 trillion in fighting wars over the past 30 years rather than investing in infrastructure at home. The US spent $14 trillion upholding a world order of free trade and international maritime law which directly benefited China and was responsible for its own export based growth over the last 30 years. We're seeing that global order realign now, with things like Brexit and Trump, but…
I think we need a citation on money being the cost to keeping those shipping lanes open. We already spend much more than China and Russia combined, it’s not easy to imagine that could be reduced and we could still keep those countries in check. My understanding was the major draws were unending wars and country building projects in the midddle east, with large military spending projects the military didn’t ask for bu…
Unfortunately warfare doesn't work like an optimization algorithm. People are irrational, lack perfect information, and are susceptible to psychological manipulation. You cannot simply have a force two or three times larger than the enemy. Maintaining peace requires an overwhelming order of magnitude in force which ensures no one will ever be challenged. That's the entire basis of Pax Americana.
As far as the budget, all that info is openly available. But the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan have cost about $1.3 trillion, or two years of the total defense budget. The vast majority of recurring military spending is salaries, VA benefits, R&D, and maintaining/upgrading the navy and air force.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_...
To the extent that reporting was and is accurate, not only were we spending our "blood and treasure" in this war, we were laying the groundwork for Chinese economic and political expansion.
Building part of the foundation for the Great Belt, as it were, and as we learn more more fully, now.
Another weird thing to me, as a foreigner in the US, is the fascination people have for the "troops".
It is the guilt we feel for sending poor people to die for the interests of the rich, and then abandoning the ones that did survive to subpar healthcare and broken promises, only to use them as political pawns every 2-4 years. If we all just say "Thank you!!" over and over again, we are absolved.
Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of innocent lives lost, murdered by America's war machine in its lust for total military domination of its so-called enemies. Its not enough that Americans' finally come to grip with the terms of their own scam. The American people must confront the crimes against humanity that their state has committed, time and again. With such human destitution in its midst, as well as at t…
Yeah, it's not that black and white. Despite a pretty spastic and often misguided foreign policy, the US human rights record is much much better than other large political entities (i.e, USSR, China, etc).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Our roads are bad. We lack decent public transportation. Our internet speeds are slow and overly exspensive. We do not have most of the infrastructure we need. Jack Ma calls it warfare you call it defense. Whatever term you wish to use is fine with me. The trillions we spent on defense in Iraq and Afghanistan certainly was not well spent. We do have an obligation to defend the Ukraine against Russian attacks. That wa…
The deal with Ukraine only requires us to defend them against nuclear attacks, and even then, the only requirement is to seek action in the UN. For conventional attacks, our only obligation is not to attack ourselves. This is such a common misconception. I wonder where it came from. The Budapest Memorandum is short and understandable. Is this just a game of telephone gone badly wrong, or is there propaganda at work?
The reason why China is spending a lot more on infrastructure than the U.S. is because they didn't have a lot of infrastructure to begin with and if they want some they have to build it. The U.S. already has most (not all) of the infrastructure we need. A lot of what we need to build is to replace existing infrastructure which is getting old but technically still works. Comparing Chinese to American infrastructure sp…