[marianatom]

There are so many wrongs with your statements that I don't know where to start. I'll just tackle one of them.

"build a high speed rail network", implying that US is failing there. China is suffering from a $1 TRILLION debt for its rails https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Markets/China-debt-crunch/C..., while ridership collapses https://japan-forward.com/weak-demand-for-chinas-high-speed-.... Cities in China are suffering from $23 TRILLION insolvent debt and inability to raise more https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-05-21/china-s-2.... I certainly hope US doesn't suffer the same fate.

[cyberax]

The thing is, debts are just numbers on paper at the end of the day. You can erase them, but the infrastructure will remain.

Erasing debts wipes out (most) savings and hurts rich people. So it's not something that can be done lightly, but it is an option.

Also, Chinese HSR ridership is back up after COVID restrictions were lifted.

[marianatom]

> You can erase them

that's not how economics works. if that's the case, you would not see the Chinese governments (federal and local) doing desperate things to collect more revenues like:

- China considers measures to encourage re-employment of retirees https://hrmasia.com/china-considers-measures-to-encourage-re...

- issuing massive traffic/parking tickets a year after, to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars, to commercial and normal drivers

- banks preventing normal withdrawals of money. often, deceased's children can't withdraw their parents savings, even with all the official documentations

- government entities delaying several months of owed salaries to its employees https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/5/11/chinas-cash-stra...

[anonymouskimmer]

Infrastructure needs to be maintained.

[throw_pm23]

when you are $1k in debt, you are in trouble. When you are trillions in debt, the "bank" is in trouble.