A potential threat to our economy.
I read this article about China's construction projects and how they are sometimes 'rushed', Read here. The implication being that China botches it projects and that they fail to meet western standards because of a bridge collapse.Mmmmm. Here is a bridge in the US collapsing but nobody seems to be talking about botched jobs even though an enquiry will take 18 months.
Now I have no doubt that China's infrastructure projects are being rushed. they will take shortcuts as their economy grows but I suspect it is all being done under government control. After all in China they execute people caught fiddling the books where as in the US they go through tons of legal loopholes before the cases end up being plea bargained.
Seems to me that people are trying to make out the Chinese workmanship is shoddy. Could we be waking up to the potential impact of China on the UK market?
posted by Bag @ 11:35 pm
8 Comments:
I think the truth is, Bag, that all workmanship is shoddy everywhere. It certainly is here.
I think in general it goes to the minimum standard and no more. The Chinese in their rapid expansion are willing to take chances that we would if we could.
It the same with India. They are competitive because of their labour laws. So we force ours on them so they will become just an ineffective as us. Thus removing the benefit.
It's one of the ways we get to spread our red tape and inefficiencies across the world.
If the bridge in Minn. had collapsed say in the first 30 years or so, maybe they would be talking about botched jobs. After that it seems the job was not botched eh?
They found deficiencies in the bridge in 1990 but never fixed them :(
I just wonder why the MN bridge made the news across the world and the China bridge, with a higher number of casualties, didn't so much.
I think it's because standards are higher in the US and this sort of thing is unusual. In some countries the standards are lower and therefore it's more common.
It is because the world values American lives more than Chinese lives. America values American lives much more than China values Chinese lives. Look at the work conditions for miners for examples. Three miners in Utah gets much more coverage than fifty miners in China.
Also as a Civil Engineer I can confirm that the principals of bridge structural design are the same the world over. The issue is with the implementation. This is where the issue of budgets, materials, techniques, quality come into play.
Colin, I understand what you are saying and you could be right.
I do feel however that in periods where major infrastructure work is being done certain standards are lowered and lives are given a lower value. China has not got a high regard for live and we reflect that sentiment when it comes to reporting. Now I think about it there were 250 miners in China getting less coverage. It's also what is important a home. It's clear that we don't really care about non westerners.
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