Posted on 01/26/2011 12:51:51 PM PST by wheresmyusa
Last night in his State of the Union address, President Obama urged Americans and Congress to embrace this generation's "Sputnik" moment and spend more on technology and innovation to spur economic growth.
America is losing its edge to nations like China, Mr. Obama suggested, because we have failed to commit to a long-term vision to be competitive in this digital age. "China is building faster trains and newer airports," the president said. "Meanwhile, when our own engineers graded our nation's infrastructure, they gave us a 'D.'"
"Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80% of Americans access to high-speed rail, which could allow you go places in half the time it takes to travel by car," said President Obama. "For some trips, it will be faster than flying - without the pat-down."
The presidents comments raise an important question: How relevant are Chinas investments in infrastructure to the challenges of U.S. economic competitiveness?
Unfortunately, if Chinas commitment to high-speed rail is a benchmark for the kind of commitment President Obama believes the U.S. must make to remain competitive, we may be learning the wrong lessons.
First, China's transportation spending is very specific to its circumstances and its investment in high-speed rail should not be seen as independent of its need to develop a comprehensive transportation network. China eclipsed Japan last year to become the world's second largest economy, but this achievement is not as significant as it might appear. While the amusement park glitz of the Bund in Shanghai and the skylines of Beijing, Guangzhou and other cities are suitably impressive, they represent a nation in transition from poverty to middle-income status.
China's per capita income (adjusted for purchasing power) still ranks 93rd worldwide according to the International Monetary ...
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.org ...
I don’t care to be like China and I don’t like their crappy products.
America is losing its edge to nations like China, Mr. Obama suggested, because we have failed to commit to a long-term vision to be competitive in this digital age. “China is building faster trains and newer airports,” the president said. “Meanwhile, when our own engineers graded our nation’s infrastructure, they gave us a ‘D.’”
Hey Obushma.....if you and your fellow Free Trade Communists were not shipping American wealth and jobs to Communist China....there would not be such a “disadvantage”.
Obushma and Free Trade Communists: Partners in the raping of America
Wouldn’t high-speed rail access to all of those people pretty much kill the concept of high-speed due to the number of stops it would need?
With so many people living in suburbs or otherwise away from downtown, how does having to get to and from downtown make it easier?
Moron doesn’t understand that the sputnik moment was one of OH CRAP! The Russians sucessfully put a satellite in space and jumped WAY ahead of the USA. Or maybe he is referring to an Oh crap moment coming at from China.
Really bad choice of words.
Well, his advisors admire Mao, obama made glowing statements about China after he came back from the olympics there and both China and obama are in favor of internet censorship. China owns a big bunch of our debt and their leader was just here and was outright treating obama like they own him.
Zer0 IS the sputnik of our times. 2010 was the start of the awakening.
The “new” China is being built by the “old” USA, namely Coca-Cola, GM, Catepillar, etc.
As far as I can tell, the only reason for high speed rail in Nevada is to give Harry Reid a hell of a lot of money for all the property he bought all along the line.
Love the headline. :)
And the contracts for high speed rail here are going to Chinese companies.
I thought it was a world class Freudian slip. O is our sputnik moment. Overcoming him is the challenge of our age.
If we want to be more European, it would be cheaper for us to just start a couple world wars every century, embrace mimes and let heat waves kill our elderly.
Sounds pretty simple on paper, dead.
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