korrents

What Brian Potter thinks about China

@brian-potter · 43 positions · 1 change of mind

Structural engineer and writer, author of the Construction Physics newsletter, where he takes apart how large physical things — buildings, ships, semiconductor fabs, aeroplanes — actually get made, and why the cost of making them moves the way it does.

Everything they publish, on ppll ↗

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2 dated positions, 2024, in their own words. Our reading of what Brian Potter has said — not written or endorsed by them.

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  1. Our readingAmerican shipbuilding capacity has collapsed to a rounding error beside China's.

    Their wordsThe U.S. Navy estimates that China’s shipbuilding capacity is 232 times our own.

    ↗Why Can't the U.S. Build Ships?construction-physics.com 1st of 8 in this piece

    America

    Interesting

  3. Our readingCommercial shipbuilding keeps moving to whichever country has the cheapest labour, and America has never been that country.

    Their wordsShipbuilding is labor intensive, and we see a repeated pattern of it moving to countries with low-cost labor: from Britain to Japan, then to Korea, then to China.

    ↗Why Can't the U.S. Build Ships?construction-physics.com 6th of 8 in this piece

    AmericaJapan

    Interesting