Totalitarianism has its efficiencies.
Point of fact . . .
It is actually Authoritarianism.
That said . . .
Yes, it is very efficient.
China Buys 80 Very High Speed Trains (236 mph) for $4 Billion
11–20 of 34 posts
Re: China Buys 80 Very High Speed Trains (236 mph) for $4 Billion
#12Totalitarianism has its efficiencies.
Totalitarianism is very efficient until the people realize material wealth without political freedom is hollow.
That's the standard line, but I'm not sure that it's as inevitable as that. It might well be that an efficient and well-run dictatorship or monarchy can compete with Western-style democracy (though I'm not sure China is "well-run" enough in this sense to be a good test case).
Re: China Buys 80 Very High Speed Trains (236 mph) for $4 Billion
#13Not trying to be funny, but I am kind of surprised they didn't just buy a few and make copies of them.
i wont be surprised if 80 is "few" for China as they might be planning to have 800 trains in next 10 or 20 years (its a huge country - geographically ) ... who knows?
Re: China Buys 80 Very High Speed Trains (236 mph) for $4 Billion
#14Not trying to be funny, but I am kind of surprised they didn't just buy a few and make copies of them.
If you can read Mandarin,
one of the things you can see on the
blogs in China is that these things
are so cheap to manufacture that it
costs more to steal them!
The Mag-Lev from Pudong Airport cost what ... 1.5 Billion. It only goes about 20 miles into Shanghai. They are getting 80 of these trains for 4 Billion.
Stealing a new fangled industrial adhesive might be profitable, and useful in your construction projects. But if you are going to build it the regular way . . .
it just doesn't pay to steal a nail.
Re: China Buys 80 Very High Speed Trains (236 mph) for $4 Billion
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Totalitarianism is very efficient until the people realize material wealth without political freedom is hollow.
That's the standard line, but I'm not sure that it's as inevitable as that. It might well be that an efficient and well-run dictatorship or monarchy can compete with Western-style democracy (though I'm not sure China is "well-run" enough in this sense to be a good test case).
Singapore . . . is the example
you were looking for I think.
Re: China Buys 80 Very High Speed Trains (236 mph) for $4 Billion
#16Totalitarianism has its efficiencies.
Let's get excited about the efficiencies when the product is delivered on schedule, on budget, and with good quality. Governments the world over announce wondrous things like this all the time, but none of them have a lock on going over budget, over schedule, and with distinctly less quality than was promised.
(I'm not saying all government projects are failures; if you thought I said that, read more carefully please.)
Re: China Buys 80 Very High Speed Trains (236 mph) for $4 Billion
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's the standard line, but I'm not sure that it's as inevitable as that. It might well be that an efficient and well-run dictatorship or monarchy can compete with Western-style democracy (though I'm not sure China is "well-run" enough in this sense to be a good test case).
Singapore . . . is the example you were looking for I think.
Yeah, I did think about Singapore, but I don't know much about how it's set up politically, so I decided to stick with the case already on topic. :)
Re: China Buys 80 Very High Speed Trains (236 mph) for $4 Billion
#18Not trying to be funny, but I am kind of surprised they didn't just buy a few and make copies of them.
i wont be surprised if 80 is "few" for China as they might be planning to have 800 trains in next 10 or 20 years (its a huge country - geographically ) ... who knows?
Who's going to buy the copies though?
Re: China Buys 80 Very High Speed Trains (236 mph) for $4 Billion
#19High-speed train competition is a fascinating topic (if you're a.. uh.. trainspotter :)) For about a decade, Germany has been trying to sell the 'Transrapid' mag-lev trains and tech to China. Transrapid was sponsored by various German governments (both federal and state) for well over two decades, with the occasional state PM or federal minister turning it into their pet project (e.g. to link an airport to a city, or…
It might please you then to know that in dutch 'ATB' stands for 'automatische trein beveiliging', loosely translated to 'automatic train protection'.