I will grant you that “ability to build a good transit system” not only correlates with but actually causes a country not to be poor. Or in the words of this discussion, the ability to build a good transit system does predict relatively decent versus relatively poor GDP *LEVEL*.
But that is very different than saying in the modern world - call it the last 50 years - the the ability to build a good transit system does predict ONGOING GDP *growth*.
California (and I am *no* fan of today’s CA governance) vs. Japan and Europe demonstrates decidedly that it does not.
What evidence is there that the “ability to build a good transit system does predict GDP growth.”
Western Europe and Japan build excellent transit system (likely the best in the world), but their economies are relatively stagnant.
Their stagnation has little to do with their high speed rail though, a LOTS to do with an over regulated private sector in particular labor markets.
You are effectively agreeing with Michael.
I will grant you that “ability to build a good transit system” not only correlates with but actually causes a country not to be poor. Or in the words of this discussion, the ability to build a good transit system does predict relatively decent versus relatively poor GDP *LEVEL*.
But that is very different than saying in the modern world - call it the last 50 years - the the ability to build a good transit system does predict ONGOING GDP *growth*.
California (and I am *no* fan of today’s CA governance) vs. Japan and Europe demonstrates decidedly that it does not.