
China’s High-Speed Train Map Puts U.S. Transportation to Shame - jseliger
https://medium.com/@parismarx/chinas-high-speed-train-map-puts-u-s-transportation-to-shame-272e6694c04d
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CandidlyFake
"While the United States is busy talking about making itself “great again” by
demonizing immigrants and trans people while it continues to decline as a
world power, Europe and China are expanding their forward-looking systems of
high-quality transportation to position their regions to challenge American
power, and prosper in the coming century."

More of that objective and quality journalism. Ignoring the grammatical
mistakes, why throw in a silly quip like that? Especially considering that
europe and china aren't too fond of "immigrants" or trans people.

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craftyguy
You actually raise a good point, for China at least. I would argue that the EU
is, generally, more progressive than the US when it comes to immigrants and
trans folks.

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CandidlyFake
> I would argue that the EU is, generally, more progressive than the US when
> it comes to immigrants and trans folks.

Is this is the same EU where people of turkish descent who lived in germany
for 3 generations are still not considered german and where european
politicians of african descent get bananas thrown at them? Where in europe are
trans people treated better than in the US? Or are you talking about
generations of north african immigrants who are confined to ghettos in france
and who are pretty much barred from any positions of power? Or are you talking
about the african immigrants in spain who are pretty much relegated to
rummaging through garbage or prostitution? Europe isn't a utopia people love
to pretend it is. All the monkey chants and racist vitriol directed at black
and asian soccer players at soccer games should make that obvious.

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alant
Not a fair comparison. Train is more suited for China since car ownership per
capita is lower. Between cars and planes in the US, it’s hard for trains to
compete. High car ownership rates in China would be bad for the environment
given the large population. So, nice cars in the US, nice trains in China

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sytelus
It’s a fair comparison. Cars are about 3X slower than bullet trains, even when
there is no traffic. If SF to LA had a bullet train, it would take less than 2
hr instead of 6 hours. That’s huge difference even if you don’t count for
return trip. More cars per capita is due to lack of such train network in
first place. If you go to places like Switzerland which is pretty sparse,
trains are defacto way to travel even when people could easily buy car if they
wanted to. The country heavily invested in public transit resulting in lower
cars per capita.

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alant
I see your point. However, many things work in small countries like
Switzerland where the population is more homogeneous and highly educated
wouldn't work in large countries like the US with a more diverse population.
Moreover, the tax rate is also quite different. Public transit like trains
require tax money. However, car buying is more individual's decision.
Unfortunately, raising taxes is quite unpopular in the US.

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melling
The US really has no completed high-speed rail. The map for the US should be
empty.

