Home » General Discussions » Heated Discussions and Debates » Rick Scott sucks ass
| Re: Rick Scott sucks ass [message #444852 is a reply to message #444777] |
Sat, 12 March 2011 19:18   |
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NukeIt15
Messages: 987
Registered: February 2003
Location: Out to lunch
Karma:
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Reality check here... Germany has better rail infrastructure because it had to all be rebuilt after the country was pretty much bombed back to the stone age in the closing months of World War II. France- same story. Most of that reconstruction was undertaken at the expense of the Allies in an effort to rapidly rebuild Germany's defenses in preparation for a potential attack by the Soviet Union.
The foundation of Germany's present land transportation network was built in large part by American taxpayer money, the US at that time being the only nation involved in the European half of the war which did not suffer extensive damage to its industrial base (which made up the majority of any first-world nation's economy at that point in history). Again, France- same story (although the reconstruction of France was begun before the conclusion of the War). Many of the cities linked today by rail in Europe were gutted- when they were rebuilt, the railroads were expanded. This was in part to provide increased transport capacity for the armies of NATO in the event of war with the USSR.
Long story short, most of continental Europe's famous rail network has only existed for about half a century. Most of the routes in the US were established in the first three decades of the 20th century and fixed in place by urban development after that. It is a lot harder to break down and rebuild existing infrastructure than it is to built it from scratch.
It should be noted that any of the above that holds true in Europe goes double for Japan. European cities were gutted; Japanese cities were utterly annihilated with the chief exception of Kyoto and the cities (other than Hiroshima and Nagasaki of course) on the atomic bomb target list.
An awful lot of people died before the major European nations and Japan had the clear ground to build better mass transportation systems. The upgrades since then were done by those nations independently, but the US played a rather significant role in the process... both in the demolition and the subsequent reconstruction. The US never suffered that kind of total devastation, but on the other side of the coin the US has also never had any assistance from other nations in building up our infrastructure.
Food for thought next time you take a train in Europe or Japan. For good or ill, their excellent mass transportation systems would not exist if World War II hadn't happened.
"Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. Horrid mischief would ensue were (the law-abiding) deprived of the use of them." - Thomas Paine
Remember, kids: illiteracy is cool. If you took the time to read this, you are clearly a loser who will never get laid. You've been warned.
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