Government by engineer is, if anything, worse than government by lawyer. It ends with impressive but white elephant projects that have immense opportunity cost and little innovative benefit
Government by engineer is, if anything, worse than government by lawyer. It ends with impressive but white elephant projects that have immense opportunity cost and little innovative benefit https://t.co/jOqRilCOhZ
Unironically they have a b2b saas shortage
@Lib_Development What is "innovative benefit"? Sometimes we just want something that works. Not everything has to be groundbreaking to impact lives.
@Lib_Development “UChicago econ” Oh that explains it
@Lib_Development another uchicago ghoul
@Lib_Development The Three Gorges Dam costs $24 bn. Government by lawyers:
@Lib_Development It’s not clear to me that the U.S. reaps more ROI from our public infrastructure projects.
@Lib_Development More of a benefit than investing in some AI grift
@Lib_Development All of these "white elephant" projects are awesome actually.
Dumb. The Three Gorges Dam paid for itself many times. Cost ≈ ¥250 B / $37 B ⚡ Electricity: ¥400–425 B (~$60 B) → ~1.6–1.7× 🌊 Flood Control: Significant flood loss averted (~$24 B / ¥158 B in 1998-level events) → ~0.6× per episode; likely ≥1× cumulatively 🚢 Shipping: ¥700 B+ (2.12 bn t cargo) economic gains → ~3× 🏞 Tourism: ~¥25 B benefit (~2 M visitors/year since 2008) → ~0.1× ✅ Overall: Paid for itself many times over --- 📖 Sources & Links: - **Electricity**: — 1.7 trillion kWh generated (as of Dec 2024) [oai_citation:0‡State Council of China](english.www.gov.cn/archive/statis…) — 1.66 trillion kWh by Oct 2024 (CTG Corp) [oai_citation:1‡ctg.com.cn](ctg.com.cn/ctgenglish/new…) - **Flood Control**: — 1998 Yangtze flood damage ~¥158 B / $24 B [oai_citation:2‡Hrone](hrone.com/blog/the-incre…) — Dam intercepted floods nearly 70 times and stored huge floods [oai_citation:3‡ctg.com.cn](ctg.com.cn/ctgenglish/new…) - **Shipping**: — 2.12 billion t cargo transported via locks (as of late 2024) [oai_citation:4‡ctg.com.cn](ctg.com.cn/ctgenglish/new…) — Cumulative cargo throughput reached 2.24 bn t by mid-2025 [oai_citation:5‡Global Times](globaltimes.cn/page/202506/13…) — Shipping costs cut 35–37% and capacity dramatically increased [oai_citation:6‡Dialogue Earth](dialogue.earth/en/energy/1417…) - **Tourism**: — ~2 million visitors/year since 2008; economic benefit ~¥25 B total [oai_citation:7‡paradigmpress.org](paradigmpress.org/SSSH/article/d…) — 3.21 million visits in 2024 alone [oai_citation:8‡ctg.com.cn](ctg.com.cn/ctgenglish/new…)
@Lib_Development >little innovative benefit Ok, what about all the other benefits?
The slight overbuild of big infrastructure is a small price to pay for a society that can actually build stuff. Remember the Apollo program was a “white elephant” and was cancelled because it imposed opportunity costs - the US government needed the money to fight wars against poverty, drugs, and Vietnamese peasants. All of which went incredibly well.
You mean like the Hoover Dam, Moon landing (or Int'l Space Station at least), the interstate highway system, global telephone and internet networks, or, yes, the railroads in the US or India the Brits built two centuries ago. Or any number of projects like that in Europe done by the Austria-Hungary, Ottomans or Romans (all roads lead to Rome). You retarded idiot.
@Lib_Development This neolibtard bean counter thinks a hydropower plant that is actively generating energy is a “white elephant” because China did it.
@Lib_Development You suffer from the 5th Stage of China Grief: 1 China doesn't make anything valuable 2 It doesn't innovate 3 It is a debt & political bubble doomed to collapse 4 It innovates but uselessly 5 we don't want this innovation anyway
@Lib_Development Isnt the opportunity cost of doing nothing worse still?
@Lib_Development A white elephant project is, by definition, one that has high costs in exchange for limited or only symbolic benefits. How is the largest hydroelectric power plant on Earth not a massive benefit?
@Lib_Development >building powerplants >little benefit Try running your shitty AI farms when you start getting brownouts, genius. It's a good thing that US forgot how to have real industry, won't have to listen to their nonsense for long.
@Lib_Development L(MAO) University of Chicago is letting in any idiot these days.