Comment by starpilot
6 years ago
China is incredible in this respect. Nationwide high speed rail in less time than California will build a single route.
6 years ago
China is incredible in this respect. Nationwide high speed rail in less time than California will build a single route.
Why is it incredible simply to do something fast? China is not a model to emulate. They throw a massive number of people on projects, pays them next to nothing (neither when they are maimed, nor to their families in case of death), and allow them hardly any time off. Wherever they're employed, it's not uncommon for Chinese men, and women, to only see their family 1-2 times a year.
The fundamental model that we forget today is that impressive things are built by oppressing millions of people.
From the pyramids, to Notre Dame, Neuschwanstein Castle, Great Wall of China, Panama Canal, Chichen Itza, Machu Picchu, Cancun hotel zone, etc every single technologically unbelievable achievement was built by exploiting large masses of the population.
The reason we cannot build the same today is that the pool of people that can be exploited has been much reduced.
Perhaps that is a cause for celebration.
Hallelujah. This is a passage about St. Petersburg, sometimes referred to (among other cities) as "The Venice of the North":
Starting with the construction of the Peter and Paul Fortress, Peter dragooned thousands of conscripts, convicts and prisoners of war to erect the city from scratch in a place where snow can fall as early as September and as late as May. Tree trunks had to be sunk into the swampy ground before it could support structures.
Living in ramshackle quarters and working with inadequate tools – often digging by hand and carrying the dirt in the front of their shirts – these involuntary labourers died in their thousands, carried off by disease or frequent flooding. As a result, St Petersburg became known as the “city built on bones”.
>Neuschwanstein Castle
This was a late 19th century project.
The medieval castle originally on the site was likely built by clans that had been bred by the Romans for hundreds of years for this exact purpose.
> Cancun hotel zone
Didn't expect to see that on the list. It looks to me like any other mega hotel beach area ... or am I missing something about it?
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