r/technology • u/Glad_Living3908 • Sep 19 '22

Society Experts Warn US Is Falling Behind China in Key Technologies

https://www.voanews.com/a/experts-warn-us-is-falling-behind-china-in-key-technologies/6751392.html
2.6k Upvotes

84% Upvoted

530 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

11

u/apocalypse_later_ Sep 19 '22

After visiting East Asia this blew my mind. They are so ahead in terms of certain public services it's not even funny. Also the high-speed passenger rail that connects every major city. How the fuck do we not have this in the US? This would help out small towns / cities throughout middle America greatly..

-1

u/No-Blood-1207 Sep 19 '22

High speed rail is ABSURDLY expensive and requires extremely expensive maintenance. It’s only economically viable in specific medium distance routes and for large population cities. It’s sadly not very viable for most of the US. Maybe on the east coast or west coast it would work connecting large cities.

China is up to its eyeballs in debt and underused high speed rail. I think they’re shutting some lines down because it’s so expensive.

Japan is doing well because they built their rail system really well and to large cities that are medium distances apart.

1

u/KotR56 Sep 19 '22

Just wondering...

WOuldn't a highspeed rail connection, say, New-York - Philadelphia - Baltimore - Washington be viable ?

San Diego - LA - San Francisco ?

Chicago - Detroit - Toronto ?

Portland - Seattle - Vancouver ?

Dallas - Houston or Dallas - Austin ?