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TreadOnMe

@TreadOnMe@hexbear.net

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TreadOnMe ,
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Are people really still going blank goes brrrrr in 2024?

Meme culture really is dead.

In case you wanted to visualize the inefficiency of US military/contractors: Upper image is what the US built in Gaza for $320 million. Lower image is what China built in Guandong for $220 million. ( hexbear.net )

The United States has such a large GDP because 1/3 of it is the private healthcare industry. Another massive chunk is the government throwing tax dollars at a shell company of a shell company of a shell company that moves a government contract for construction around to each other 4 times, all subsequently increasing GDP.

TreadOnMe ,
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Do you really think being in a warzone matters? Who is going to attack the U.S. building the pier? Hamas, Hezbollah or Yemen whom wants aid to get in to lessen internal tensions in Gaza, or Israel, who are ostensibly U.S. allies?

If anything, this was a chance for the U.S. to put it's money where it's mouth was in term of a neoliberal 'redevelopment' scheme, but clearly it's going to be the same shtick we pulled in Iraq and Afghanistan. Alot of money and talk.

Edit: If you're going to make a shit argument, at least go with the 'it was done in weeks' argument.

TreadOnMe ,
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I think the saddest thing about modern American engineering and tech is that they would all be fucking psyched about Chinese tech and cars if they were born in China. Like, the only reason these people are so blinkered about China is because they were born in the U.S.

They are so sure that they can see past the propaganda, that they are just eating shit the whole way down.

TreadOnMe ,
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I am here to tell you that america communists are wildly out of touch with the consumption tastes of the average Chinese public.

Not that we aren't right to be cynical about our own engineers achieving the same results as Chinese manufacturing.

TreadOnMe ,
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You are being idealistic and giving into American exceptionalism.

However much you or I hate it, it is a matter of taste. Interfaces can be made to work intuitively, touch screen phones prove you do not need to have fixed analog buttons, and screen brightness is easy to program to adjust automatically. Our shit doesn't work because tech bros are addicted to a million unneeded features and menus. If you are just looking for a style you can vastly simplify your interface and limit your options to what is strictly nessecery. Most Chinese people will not be driving these kinds of teched-out cars.

I think it's ugly as sin, and I hope it is a passing trend, but that doesn't mean this stuff is impossible to do well. It just means we can't do it well.

TreadOnMe ,
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"I find Marxism to be intellectually stimulating and not at all radical." Ok Kautsky, you don't have to brag about not thinking about the implications of ideas being true.

TreadOnMe ,
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What is hilarious about your argument is that it takes far more land to build and maintain a highway, and yet we somehow never had any problems with forcing land sales with eminent domain clauses doing that.

It's almost as if the government is owned by a series of interests that are not actually interested in investing and maintaining efficient consumption minimum and economical modes of transportation, and instead focused on making a system that is efficient at creating profit for it's ownership class. It's almost as if, instead of a focus on the money to commodity cycle, there is a perverse incentive for a money to commodity to money cycle that means there is no real incentive to ever substantially invest to improve your commodity production.

Weird. curious-marx

TreadOnMe ,
@TreadOnMe@hexbear.net avatar

The highways weren't just magically placed there by the grace of God, they were built and expanded by the government using eminent domain. A highspeed rail system could be built using the same legal precedents, and would likely keep the highways from having to be expanded (ever).

What you are saying is that we could never build a new system in the same way that we built the old system, which is patently false, which is still different from your claim that China can avoid red-tape when the U.S. does not which is also false. The U.S. picks and chooses when it decides to uphold 'private property' because it only cares about the private property of those that buy the political system, it demonstrably does not care about general private property rights of those that inconvenience whatever the agenda is. Which means that the agenda COULD be High Speed rail, and it is not 'the law' or 'the government' getting in the way but private companies.

Also, for someone with a tenuous grasp on legal reality, I don't think you should be discussing the realities of rail-based civil engineering. Highways aren't particularly known for being good to work with on complex landscapes.

I am saying that the literal incentives of a profit-driven capitalist economy will always inevitably degrade the commodity process, incentivizing profit generation and rent seeking over industrialization and economizing commodity processes. It has nothing to do with 'corruption', 'power' or 'politicians', nor did I ever indicate that is what we were talking about. It is the system working as intended.

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