In two generations, China has built 500 entire cities from scratch, moved the majority of
their huge population from poverty to the middle class, and mostly cornered the market
in 5G and pharmaceuticals. Oh, and they bought Africa. Their new Silk Road Initiative is
the biggest infrastructure project in history, indebting not just that continent, but large
parts of Asia, Europe, and the Middle East to the people who built their roads, bridges,
and ports. If you want to go anywhere in the world these days, you better have a yen for
travel. In China alone, they have 40,000 kilometers of high-speed rail. America has none. Our
fastest train is the tram that goes around the zoo. California wanted to build high-speed
rail, connecting the entire state, but, alas, could not. We're 6 billion in the hole just
trying to finish the track connecting the vital hubs of Bakersfield and Merced. One
small step for nobody, one giant leap if you're a raisin. On a national level, we've been
having Infrastructure Week every week since 2009, but we never do anything. Half the country's
having a never-ending woke competition deciding whether Mr. Potato Head has a dick, and the
other half believes we have to stop the lizard people because they're eating babies. We are
a silly people. Even when we all agree on something like getting rid of the penny, no,
the inertia, the ass-covering, the graft, the lawyers, the cowardice, nothing ever moves
in this impacted colon of a country. We see a problem and we ignore it, lie about it,
fight about it, endlessly litigate it, sunset-closet, kick it down the road, and then write a bill
where a half-assed solution doesn't kick in for 10 years. China sees a problem and they
fix it. They build a dam. We debate what to rename it. That's why their airports look
like this, and ours look like this. In San Francisco, it took 10 years just to get two
bus lines through environmental review. The Big Dig, a tunnel in Boston, took 16 years,
and don't get me started on my solar hookup. China once put up a 57-story skyscraper in
19 days. They demolished and rebuilt the Sanyuan Bridge in Beijing in 43 hours. We binge watch,
they binge build. When COVID hit Wuhan, the city built a quarantine center with 4,000 rooms in 10
days, and they barely had to use it because they quickly arrested the spread of the disease.
They were back to throwing raves in swimming pools while we were stuck at home surfing the
dark web for black market charmant. We're not losing to China. We lost. The returns just haven't
all come in yet.