Friday, September 14, 2007

China's tallest building nearly done


We used to be the ones doing this...what happened?

Lets see if we get intelligent debate or tin-foil hat crap.

15 comments:

hashfanatic said...

Well, our age of such accomplishments has simply ended....office space is at previously-unseen vacancy levels, and the powers that be just don't see it as a sufficiently profitable endeavor any more.

On the other hand, the Chinese have something to prove, they have cheap labor, cheap materials, and cheap engineers to work with, so they build...and build, and build, and build.

How many here will risk buying one of the new Chinese cars, when they come out next year? (We're talking $8K list...)

Incidentally, I was one of the ones who strongly supported rebuilding both World Trade Center towers as they were, as I believed the symbolic message was more important than financial considerations or some pansy-assed "Freedom Tower"!

(With all of the controversies, regarding human remains and such, I now advocate a huge memorial park. I have to admit, the neighborhood is really brighter, airier, and less claustrophobic without any towers...

I actually wish we were in a stronger position versus China, that we could put more pressure to bear on their government for their egregious attitudes toward environmental initiatives at home.

The Game said...

Not bad Hash..don't have time to respond...but I agree mostly

hmmmmmmmmmm said...

This is a red-letter date folks! Mark those calenders! For what may be a most singular time in history, Hash has said something with which I am in full agreement. The Towers should have been rebuilt. What better way to say "Kiss my ass!" to the scumbags that brought them down! Makes far more sense than rebuilding a city that is destined to flood again.

jhbowden said...

We're building a lot of new skyscrapers in Chicago, including the Chicago Spire (150 floors), the Trump International Hotel (96 floors), the Waterview Tower (89 floors), Aqua (82 floors), Legacy at Millenium Park (71 floors) and so forth. Highrise apartments are also sprouting up like weeds all over the near south loop.

jhbowden said...

"Well, our age of such accomplishments has simply ended."

Gloom and Doom nonsense.

hashfanatic said...

That's right, spin it, Jason, spin it real good...

Chicago is soon to become the next Detroit, and THEN what multinationals will move in to your gleaming new towers?

America's future is in independent entrepreneurship, cottage industries, and manageable, sustainable, community-based mid-sized businesses that, with a strong government's oversight, will lead to our reindustrialization and independence from the oligarchs and the globalists.

Build a better mousetrap, and they will come.

jhbowden said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
hashfanatic said...

Jason?

"The future does not reside in failing businesses receiving government handouts."

Unfortunately for you, I never suggested it did, so you might want to stop putting words in my mouth, sonny.

"The future belongs to liberalism, globalism, and capitalism,"

Unfortunately for you, you are drawing upon YOUR corrupted interpretations of each of these functionalities have represented, as opposed to what they will come to mean, so I cannot take you seriously right from the get-go.

Past allegiances will MATTER, jason, as much as you think you can hide them from the eagle eyes and heightened discernment of myself, and my comrades.

"Perhaps if Detroit would take the Giuliani approach and punish criminals, they'd be doing as well as NYC or Chicago."

First off, there are no longer any criminals in Detroit, so it is a moot point. Detroit will need to be completely reworked, so profoundly, that I cannot work out a plan that would realize significant gains for at least ten, and more likely, fifteen years.

As for Chicago, I wouldn't want the city controller's job. Chicago intrigues me because I could see it going either way, in terms of emerging enterprise and whether there will be more or less of a corporate migration to the suburbs...but this will all hinge on quality of life issues for families, schools, etc., much more than here...the region is also far more receptive to Christian professionals than here.

Chicago needs to let go of its past. There is little there upon which to build a dynamic future.

As far as Rudy? Please do not allow yourself to be deceived. Rudy was NOT the panacea for the ills of urban society that many made him out to be. Some of the alleviation was a matter of timing, a tiny bit of it was held over from prior streamlining processes that (successfully) got more cops on the street....basically, he was marginally successful at building prisons upstate and seeing that a decent amount of savages were locked up...but the real story was that in the 90s, our street crime was black crime, and Rudy basically shipped the welfare cases and homeless up to depopulated upstate cities....and we got their hipsters , hippie types, and also-rans in time for the dot.com boom.

Most of the improvements that seemed so laudable in the 90s have faded....Times Square has deterioriated markedly in the past year and a half, most of the solid cops have retired in the same period, and they now take felons and foreigners on the force (with predictable results). Rudy's a bad planner and he just couldn't get along...with ANYONE.

Plus, Rudy is pro-gun control to fanaticism and there is no way you are ever going to get a gun nut like me to say he's tough on crime.

"The socialists here in Chicago are more of the beefy, Stalinist, moustached, slicked back hair union types who don't have a lot of patience with earthworshipping hippies and their vapid slogans about sustainability."

I'm up and down on the unions themselves but, for all intents and purposes, you've got me nailed pretty much to a T.

"Fortunately, they aren't as self-destructive as the morons on the west coast who would kill the capitalist goose laying the golden eggs for "community" and "independence" and other empty phrases."

Community, independence, and capitalism are in no way mutually exclusive, when they are held in proper measure, and one does not get in the way of the other.

The West Coast does not hold a monopoly on this dynamic (perhaps Berkeley is unique)....

"Daley the First was a big hero to everyone for having the police whup up on hippie losers from out of state, so what you're promoting will never fly in Illinois."

Oh, of course it will...in fact, a history of the types of vigilant law-and-order policies and a strong ,law-enforcement positive attitude amongst the populace will only foster growth and development, and give the little guy confidence to stand up and take chances...

It's gonna be amazing.

You have to look ahead.

Realism said...

What is that sweet fragrant aroma?

That would be because HASH IS ON FIRE!

jhbowden said...

realism, hash--

With crime, I'm surprised the left doesn't give the Clintons part of the credit for the drastic drop in crime in many parts of the countries through the 90s to today. After all, Giuliani did work with the Clinton administration to get what he needed. But again, today's left is "on fire" and simply is anti- anti- anti- without any positive program of their own.

"Unfortunately for you, you are drawing upon YOUR corrupted interpretations"

No kidding, Sherlock. When I write, I give you my interpretation, not Michael Moore's, or Rush Limbaugh's, or anyone else's.

"nfortunately for you, I never suggested it did"

In the previous post, you sang a noble song about small businesses protected by Big Brother. If you really want to help small businesses, you'll promote things like removal of minimum wages and ending social security taxes on businesses. Large companies have the economy of scale to absorb things like this in a way small companies do not.

Realism said...

If you really want to help small businesses, you'll promote things like removal of minimum wages

States with higher minimum wages have faster small business payroll growth and faster economic growth.

hashfanatic said...

"With crime, I'm surprised the left doesn't give the Clintons part of the credit for the drastic drop in crime in many parts of the countries through the 90s to today."

That would be as fraudulent in truth as giving Giuliani credit for the same. I would argue that the temporary lull in street savagery would have been an ideal time for ANYONE to forgo all such revelries and redouble our efforts toward combatting the inevitable resurgence, anticipating the crystal meth scourge, identity theft, ports security, and the effective, targeted application of profiling in airline/transportation security, without dramatics and whining.

Existing policies may be very "constitutional" and within the boundaries of law, but that doesn't mean they necessarily work in today's world. "Oceans don't have to protect us" if we play the security game smart at home, with security-minded pros and not burger flippers at airports, and felons in blue.

My concepts are about as "positive" and proactive as they can get.

"Unfortunately for you, you are drawing upon YOUR corrupted interpretations"

"No kidding, Sherlock. When I write, I give you my interpretation, not Michael Moore's, or Rush Limbaugh's, or anyone else's."

Oh, I don't mean that, buckwheat. I mean you have a tendency to attach certain attributes to philosophies or ideologies, and play mix-and-match. I can work through it and figure out what you are trying to articulate, but it IS like ordering a cold beer and being served hot tea instead.

"In the previous post, you sang a noble song about small businesses protected by Big Brother."

True, but I don't see the relevance.

"If you really want to help small businesses, you'll promote things like removal of minimum wages..."

I could very well envision such a scenario, but not now, and not in the near future, in the current state of the economy (my willingness to explore the idea would increase exponentially on the adoption and successful implementation of a comprehensive deportation program directly targeting illegal aliens and other undesirables, and I consider a 90% deportation rate twenty days or less following apprehension to be successful...)

It works out to a win-win for everyone's behalf.

"and ending social security taxes on businesses."

Not feasible or fiscally responsible, at this juncture.

What I'm interested in is realigning the tax code to abolish tax-exempts, since, they have evolved to a point where no such organization is truly "non-profit" anymore....this applies particularly to religious institutions and lobbying groups that claim to represent The One Above, but have forsaken his mission and have become meddlesome in political and business endeavors.

The vast majority of so-called "faith-based" organizations have proven to be complete failures, and hereabouts are, frequently, serving as fearless and anointed money-laundering fronts.

I'm in favor of going after non-profit fat cats and getting them to understand they have fallen down on stewardship, and eliminating the whole concept of corporate welfare, before adding further to the indignities and infirmaties of our precious elders, whom we owe more than we will ever realize.

"Large companies have the economy of scale to absorb things like this in a way small companies do not."

In the real world, this is no longer necessarily applicable, and the role of large companies, particularly subs of multinationals, need to be fundamentally redefined to a point where their place in the commercial sector will be almost unrecognizable.

Anonymous said...

Outsourcing has put tons of money and confidence in the hands of countries like China and India. It's not about the minimum wages alone or worker unions. The picture is not complete without the greedy corporations, sleeping goverment and ignorant public!! Well...

hashfanatic said...

"Outsourcing has put tons of money and confidence in the hands of countries like China and India."

An Indian automaker named Tata is preparing to introduce a new small car in America for only two grand.

Apparently, it is constructed entirely of plastic.

Yeah, "free trade" is just great! I LOVE all these new choices, and the quality! Incomparable to anything ever seen in Europe...

Anonymous said...

The Tata car is aimed at those indians who can't afford the regular car. I don't think they have any plans to release the same model here in US.

Well...