LUH 3417
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The length of high-speed railway lines in China hit 25,000 km as of the end of last year, accounting for two-thirds of the world's total. More than 4,000 bullet trains run in China, carrying 4 million passengers every day, according to the China Railway Corp.That hasn't been the case for quite a while. There are too many parasites feeding off its system. The host is too weakened, saddled with enormous debt and a high cost structure. There is a lack of political will to address serious issues.
The US dollar will lose its status when the empire falls. In a faux democracy, there is no empire to fall. No emperor. If at all, the emperor is decentralized into various centers of power: the military, backed by publicly traded defense contractors, and the American investing public , and by the American lower class, whom the military employs for wars; the lawmaking body, Congress, backed by lobbyists and PACS, backed by AIPAC and by various industrial lobby groups ranked from profitability- war-making and defense, disease and drugs, thought and fear manipulation and social media, pyramid schemes and wealth building, protection rackets and the legal profession etc. Ditto with the executive branch and the judicial branch.
Under this system, anything that is true is marginalized. To work hard is not enough. Working hard at lying, or perpetuating the lie, is key.
Aligning the American center, its middle class to the interest of these power centers keeps the enpire stable, just like a large ship - immovable and when it moves, is slow to change direction. Their nest egg is precious. It must be secure, and the security is ensured when they resist any attempt to rock the boat. Rocking the boat diminishes and weakens this empire. To that end, middle Anerica votes for its nest egg, tied in with the highly bloated stock market, cheap money enabled by the Fed printing of fake money, and perpetual wars that ensure control of strategic resources as well as the containment of threats to its hegemony.
The dollar's strength lies in the invisible power structure that allows the full spectrum of American society to bless and indirectly participate in the use of power to perpetuate false narratives. The US dollar is strong. While it holds no intrinsic value, it is propped up by the sense that there is no better alternative. Made possible by an empire that is hard to bring down.
However hard China tries, it has already lost. It is winning on the US' terms. It is merely replicating the US model. It's building a bubble just as bad as that of the US. The dictum "If you can't beat them, join them" aptly applies here. In this way, China perpetuates US empire, just as the vassal states do.
It's a world of magic, interlopers, wannabes and vassals. Take your pick.
But the U.S. has no true high-speed trains, aside from sections of Amtrak's Acela line in the Northeast Corridor. The Acela can reach 150 mph for only 34 miles of its 457-mile span. Its average speed between New York and Boston is about 65 mph.
China has more than 400,000 electric buses, about 99% of the world's total. That's because a decade ago, China began prioritizing electrification of its public transit with subsidies and national regulations.
The U.S. Has a Fleet of 300 Electric Buses.