The spice of life

Word out of China lately is that it’s targeting creating not only the world’s largest high speed rail network within its borders, but it’s planning on connecting to European countries via high speed rail as well. Just think, a “low carbon” alternative to flying and taking one from London to Beijing in only 2 days. The challenge is whether or not China can afford to spend and grow at the rate it’s been in the last ten years. One thing I noticed about the difference between a China and US centric approach, China’s spending on military simply can’t compare to what the Americans spend on its military might, of course, the Americans have to take on the role of the global police and as a result, all this “policing” costs a lot of money. Just think, if Ronald Raegan decided to spend the Star Wars dollars on building a US high speed rail and other infrastructure, or even just not spend it and pay down the deficit, the Americans would live in a totally different world today. The Chinese are pragmatic by nature and it shows, why spend money on building out 3,000 nuclear war heads like the Americans and the Soviets, just build enough so people take you seriously, like 180. At any rate, as a political observer, China’s government has the ability to perform long term plans and project into the future without worrying about political turnover. Which is what Plato envisioned centuries ago with its Philosopher King and which is why the “Central Kingdom” was the center of the world for centuries. Perhaps the Washington politicians can forego all the party politics and do what’s right for the people and by the people, there I go day dreaming again, but that’s the beauty of our political system, the ability to dream.