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Also from the article: “China is operating from a position of abundance” Electricity communism
neoliberalabundance goons in shambles rn
Wait they let it get this bad? Wait they offshored production of pretty much everything - including brain power while stripping the copper from their own walls? Wait their plan is to become FURTHER nationalistic at the expense of trade alliances etc?
Damn. I thought we’d have more to do…
From the article:
Structural governance differences
Underpinning the hardware advantage is a difference in governance. In China, energy planning is coordinated by long-term, technocratic policy that defines the market’s rules before investments are made, Fishman said. This model ensures infrastructure buildout happens in anticipation of demand, not in reaction to it.
“They’re set up to hit grand slams,” Fishman noted. “The U.S., at best, can get on base.”
In the U.S., large-scale infrastructure projects depend heavily on private investment, but most investors expect a return within three to five years: far too short for power projects that can take a decade to build and pay off.
“Capital is really biased toward shorter-term returns,” he said, noting Silicon Valley has funneled billions into “the nth iteration of software-as-a-service” while energy projects fight for funding.
In China, by contrast, the state directs money toward strategic sectors in advance of demand, accepting not every project will succeed but ensuring the capacity is in place when it’s needed. Without public financing to de-risk long-term bets, he argued, the U.S. political and economic system is simply not set up to build the grid of the future.
Cultural attitudes reinforce this approach. In China, renewables are framed as a cornerstone of the economy because they make sense economically and strategically, not because they carry moral weight. Coal use isn’t cast as a sign of villainy, as it would be among some circles in the U.S. – it’s simply seen as outdated. This pragmatic framing, Fishman argued, allows policymakers to focus on efficiency and results rather than political battles.
For Fishman, the takeaway is blunt. Without a dramatic shift in how the U.S. builds and funds its energy infrastructure, China’s lead will only widen. “The gap in capability is only going to continue to become more obvious — and grow in the coming years,” he said.
TFW it’s charlatans the whole way down
Coal use isn’t cast as a sign of villainy, as it would be among some circles in the U.S. – it’s simply seen as outdated
Isn’t it villainous to still be using and forcing a energy means that is outdated and going to kill us all? Like I love these nothing burger journalists in the US the say in a paragraph what could be done in a sentence. Meanwhile China very much accepts climate change is real and doing what they can to realistically change it and create resilient infrastructure in preparation for it.
I think the author means that coal use isn’t seen as a political red line, and coal plants are allowed to function temporarily when there is a demand surge, with the understanding that this is only a temporary stopgap until enough battery capacity is built.
Could be he meant it like that but honestly just outright say that China does not deny reality and understands the costs of coal within the long term (i.e. climate change). Just comes off as a nothing burger of centralism when phrased so noncommittally.
Right? Simply put that strikes me as the analysis of a deeply unserious mind.
It’s not fucking Marvel or whatever, where “some circles” decide who the villain is based on vibes; but rather it’s villainous because of: -strip mining, acid mine drainage runoff, acid rain/sulfur dioxide/nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, mercury, lead, arsenic, cadmium, co2 greenhouse effect and ocean acidification to name a few
Good thing my custom-made “surprised hat” just came from the haberdasher, or I’d have nothing to wear!
My power is already unreliable as hell and I can only imagine it’s going to get worse as the infrastructure continues to steadily deteriorate and more of these monstrous data centers come online to further destabilize the grid
Oh really? A country that has barely maintained let alone expanded it’s grid and telecommunications outside of small select patches of techno city states like Seattle, SF, and NYC is severely behind a country that spends wide swaths of its GDP improving it’s infrastructure???
I won’t be shocked when the US collapses into the 22nd century’s own version of the fucking mad max land people think the Congo is, but this time it will be fully deserved for it’s self inflicted century of shame and all the while the world will be better off for it.
There was this tweet that was sarcastically asking why Mississippi has a higher GDP per capita than Chongqing and the Americope was insane, saying that shuffling money around was more productive than actually making things, no hint of irony or self awareness whatsoever.
Love how financial capital was able to cover up that we’ve been in a perpetual recession since covid and it’s only getting worse.
It was especially funny seeing all the “lots of colorful lights doesn’t mean prosperity” responses. Which is kinda true… until power becomes so expensive and unreliable in Mississippi that the concept of wasting it on lighting up buildings at night becomes unimaginably ostentatious.
Yeah the coloured lights are because Chinese urban planners really like gaudy flashy stuff, and Chinese PR is run by people who have no idea how to do effective propaganda so they just keep posting the colourful buildings. Beneath all that flashiness is a shitload of real infrastructure that they really should be advertising instead. You’d reach much more people talking about how you can just call 12345 and get a pothole filled in a day than going wow look at our LEDs that westerners will dismiss as a potemkin village anyways.
Honestly i think it’s a good sign that the Chinese are so bad at doing propaganda directed at the West. In order to effectively convince Westerners you have to understand how we think, and that in itself requires that you become at least partly infected by our cultural mind virus. So it’s good that the Chinese are so far removed from our toxic ways of thinking that they can’t even put themselves in the shoes of Western audiences. The more alien our cynical, misanthropic, sociopathic, hyper-individualist culture is to the Chinese people, the better for China.
True, but they’re also really bad at doing propaganda for internal consumption too so I don’t know if that’s the cause specifically. It is a good point you bring up though because despite the
cynical, misanthropic, sociopathic, hyper-individualist culture
It seems like whenever people trainpost about Chinese high speed rail it gets really good reception on Western social media aside from the obligatory
copypastas. Maybe I’m just more hopeful for Westerners than they are for themselves but it does look like there are pockets of good people out there, just very disenfranchised and alienated.It seems like whenever people trainpost about Chinese high speed rail it gets really good reception on Western social media
But how much of that is because high speed rail is seen as just another “treat”?
Fuck it lol I’ll take it, if public transit gets widespread support because people can frame it as treats, it is better than not having public transit and the current paradigm of “I’d rather sit in traffic for 4 hours a day than sit next to the poors”.
It’s gonna be hilarious if the power demand for data centres that power AI services ends up crashing the grid in the US.
That feels like a viable outcome, and then the AI bubble bursts leading to a bunch of rotting warehouses and further unemployed tech bros causing a recession that outpaces 2008’s in devastation and there’ll be no way to escape that one (at least for those unable to rent a personal jet and emigrate to Europe/Asia)
The burst of the AI bubble kicking off a 2008 style recession is a very likely possibility. And that may happen sooner than later because China is undermining the whole business model US companies are pursuing with Chinese companies releasing their models as open source. This was a fantastic discussion on the way this tech is developed in China btw https://youtu.be/Q-z28zFn2sg
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Funnier still if the heroes who take down the grid used the slop machines to plan the action.
Lol I remember thinking the grid was going to get upgrades in Obama’s first term. As part of the New Deal type shit the Obama administration would obviously be doing, with the economy being destroyed.
nothing ever changes, only the rot will continue
Too bad we all get to lose because of the West’s unwillingness to decarbonize.
is as constant and predictable as the speed of light or the rising of the sun
