Public Works: China Builds Subways; US Builds Prisons
Obama has promised massive public works projects to get Americans back to work, but if we look at the last six years, China has lead the way in sustainable public works programs (at least when it comes to transportation). Since 2002, China has built a new subway system each year.
Sure, six subway systems may not seem like much for 1.3 billion people, but China has big plans to connect every province and its largest cities in a national grid system for freight operations and high-speed rail. In the same six years, the US has opened 45 new prisons. Take that China!
Image: ernop on Flickr under a Creative Commons License
Maybe if everything at WalMart was made vs. bought here we would have the money:) Just kidding, kinda….
Hey, I wonder if China spends 2+ billion on just heath care for their inmates as will will in Calif. (And that’s just Ca!)
http://aids-write.org/?p=1132
I know it might be tough to get that kind of information since I heard somewhere that they were a communist country?
Nope they probably run things a bit lower key, but they sure can get around:)Gosh and they look so F-ing cute doing it!
All the more to please our Chinese overlords when they takeover and need a place to put us.
You should also take into consideration that China has undergone the largest mass migration of humans ever recorded. They are being forced to build transportation infrastructure…and trust me China already has no shortage of prisons. The average Chinese citizen also has to worry about going to jail for much lesser crimes. There is a reason there has been a public outcry for years about China’s human rights issues.
That aside, our internal infrastructure has been MUCH better than China’s for decades. Much of what they are building we already have. That’s not to say that we don’t need some major investment. Both Europe and Asia have already shown us the importance of high speed rail both for commuter transport as well as commercial. The need in the US is just not as great. Certain states in the Union *cough* California *cough* like to talk the talk about going green with their transportation, but outside enacting legislation that curbs economic growth of other states they don’t like to talk the talk. I have not seen major investment into rail or other alternate resource enactment.
Making the argument that we are building more prisons than subways is like comparing apples and oranges. They both indicate two completely different needs. Our prisons are overcrowded, whether we like it or now people are bad and do need to be put in jail. However, there is also a distinct need to reevaluate the reasons why people are landing there. As of Dec 2007 93,751 people are in our federal prisons out of the total 176,268. That is over half. Now I am sure that a good chunk of these are not out there for smoking/selling marijuana, but I am sure that is an argument for another day.
Yeah. That’s just what we need. To be more like China… :]