

China’s deserted fake Disneyland - boh
http://blogs.reuters.com/photographers-blog/2011/12/12/chinas-deserted-fake-disneyland/

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nextparadigms
The problem with China's economic strategy is that they keep building stuff
with their own taxpayer money to "keep jobs" and to "increase the GDP", which
makes it look like the economy is going well. But this can only last for a
while before the economy collapses on itself, because they can't keep spending
with no real returns.

This is why giving people Government jobs to solve the "unemployment" problem
is only going to work in the short term at most, if at all. There are 3
problems with this:

1) These are not very productive jobs, they are wasteful, and only exist to
keep some people employed

2) You're transferring money from some people to keep others employed, on
their own money, with no real economic benefit for them

3) The money could be used for much more productive jobs or investments

~~~
Klinky
1) The same could be said for many private sector positions.

2) This assumes your money is yours & not a form of currency issued by the
country you're doing business in. Suggesting that you'd make a whole lot more
money or hire a lot more people if the government hadn't existed or wasn't
taxing you as much or at all is a rather naive view. Many have flocked to
China exactly because of the outcomes from the way it's government runs the
place. Also pushing back an impending economic collapse isn't entirely without
short-term economic benefit.

3) People have different ideas on what a productive job or investment is.

One could even paint the opposite picture with the US, suggesting that lower
interest rates, taxes & deregulating private sectors to "create jobs" lead to
a lot of meaningless construction jobs & is just another way to get to the
same result.

------
skm
According to the reporter, this abandoned theme park is a harbinger of doom
for China's economy. But couldn't it instead be viewed as evidence of
entrepreneurial risk-taking activity? Taking risks, by definition, involves
projects that don't pan out.

Imagine if, every time a silicon valley startup abandoned 100k lines of code
to pursue a better idea, reporters swooped in and pointed this out as evidence
of impending doom.

(Note that I'm not addressing, and certainly not condoning, China's
societal/governance problems, e.g. whether the land was taken unfairly from
the farmers, etc. That's a whole 'nother ball of wax.)

~~~
prawn
"Imagine if, every time a silicon valley startup abandoned 100k lines of code
to pursue a better idea, reporters swooped in and pointed this out as evidence
of impending doom."

Don't we just get "the bubble is bursting!" articles instead?

------
eande
there is one real Disney Resort in construction (Shanghai) and with
$3.7Billion a massive undertaking, not all gloom and doom.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Disney_Resort>

~~~
brianbreslin
there is one in hong kong from 1999
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Disneyland_Resort>

