Deng Xiaoping

 https://www.quora.com/How-did-China-surpass-South-Korea-and-Japanese-firms-to-become-the-leader-in-display-panel-manufacturing-industry/answer/Kanthaswamy-Balasubramaniam

In 1983, China had picture tubes made locally and also picture tubes imported from Japan for their State manufactured TV brands

The Japanese imports were top class and the Chinese Picture Tubes were low low quality

Chinese families would save longer to buy Japanese and scoff at the Chinese product

So the Chinese Party members advised to close down the Chinese factory making picture tubes and negotiate with Japan on reducing prices of imports

Deng Xiaoping said they had to better the production of Picture Tubes and match Japanese Quality and beat it

The Chinese party members reacted like how most Indians like Balaji Viswanathan and friends would react

They said:

We have to be Practical

We are an Agrarian Country

We have so many poor people

We can't compare ourselves with Japan

Luckily Deng had power and commanded what he wanted and weeded out most people and retained only those he felt could carry out his vision.

government lies

 

https://www.hoover.org/research/californias-high-speed-rail-was-fantasy-its-inception

California’s HSR is perhaps the greatest infrastructure failure in the history of the country. And the reason it failed is because of a gross failure of state governance, one on such a grand scale that it is nothing short of a betrayal of Californians.

The betrayal dates back to the project’s inception. A report by the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) found that the program’s 2008 business plan—which had been legally required to be submitted to the state legislature on September 1, 2008 but was not released until after the bond issue was voted—was deficient. The plan did not present statistics on train capacity, forecasts of segment service levels, how funds would be secured, how costs would be distributed by system segment, an operating break-even point, what analytical methods were used to forecast ridership, expected completion dates for environmental review and construction, and how risks would be mitigated.

Imagine a business plan without discussion of future funding, project capacity, demand at the product (segment) level, how costs would be allocated, or how risks would be mitigated. The 2008 business plan was anything but a business plan. Voters approved $9.95 billion in bond financing for a dream, not a vetted project. And like most dreams, California high-speed rail has turned out to be a fantasy.

If the plan had been submitted by the required date—more than two months before the election—then these deficiencies would have come to light. Instead, voters trusted those whom they elected and voted to tax themselves to fund a project that was never going to be feasible. They trusted that California’s state government was capable of spending their tax dollars effectively. At one time, California governance was among the best in the country. Our state government created and built capital projects efficiently and quickly. In the 1960s, such trust was warranted. It no longer is.