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.
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.