Does it include passenger operations? Because China's Rail Knowledge magazine reports 77,000 KM of total track in China, not 60,000 for 2006. And you said that you "guessed" that the Chinese numbers include some passenger lines. I tend to ignore guesses-- old habit. Anyway the number of trains, and the average tonnage per train still stands and shows some of the difference in productivity.
Numbers for US railroad employment also include trackworkers, bridge builders, signal maintainers, signal designers, train dispatchers, mechanics, construction personnel, clerks-- everybody who is employed by the railroad, so if China's doesn't include such workers, which seems to be a possibility according to your post, then the numbers need to be adjusted for that. You seem to have a growth fetish-- as if simple mass indicates development. As any Marxist could tell you, growth is not development, under capitalism, or comboed "state socialism/capitalism." I know you're not a Marxist, but you really need to get off this growth fetish. The greater productivity of US railroads has actually allowed it to reduce its network, reduce trackage and the costs associated with maintaining that trackage, while increasing revenue tons and revenue ton-mileage while reducing labor requirements, just as greater productivity of US agriculture has allowed to operate with less acreage, and far fewer farms, than Chinese agriculture, and with much less labor power. Should we now all hail the progress of Chinese agriculture because average plot size is so small that there are many more farms in China? It was you after all who introduced the claim or "possibility" that China had overtaken the US in freight rail transportation. I asked how you were measuring that-- what were productivity numbers. If you can't provide those, at least spare us the guesses and the possibilities ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lüko Willms" <lueko.wil...@t-online.de> To: "David Schanoes" <sartes...@earthlink.net> Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 1:28 PM Subject: Re: [Marxism] China investing heavily in infrastructure: Railway The number of workers includes possibly all the personnel of the MOR (Ministry of Railways), including those who a building new lines by the thousands of kilometers per year. So the personnel figure is the one which is the least useable in a comparison with the US railways. The US network doesn't grow, does it? Maybe when Obama's programme for expansion of railways actually becomes reality, but before not. Right? Cheers, Lüko Willms Frankfurt, Germany -------------------------------- ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
