He was a foreigner too ;)

I don't know where people get this idea.

America has several sets of eminent domain laws depending on the jurisdiction. The most coercive is federal eminent domain law specifically as it relates to building infrastructure like railways and highways.

It's set up so that you can take the land first and eventually go back around and decide on what the right price should have been.

Not only does it superscede state and local law, federal infrastructure projects are also not bound by state laws like CEQA.

You can even apply federal eminent domain law by e.g. transferring a state-level project to the Army Corps of Engineers.

What America is lacking in these projects is will, not means. The federal government could take your house and run a train through it by the end of the week if they wanted, doesn't matter where you live.

[edit] In fact some states even ceded their eminent domain rights to private railways.

https://ij.org/press-release/appeals-court-sides-with-railro...

> property rights

The Australian federal government is planning to build a high-speed rail line from Sydney to Newcastle (medium-sized city two hours drive north). Their solution to property rights, is >50% of the line will be underground. It will cost >US$50 billion, but if the Australian federal government wants to spend that, it can afford it. The US federal government could too, but it isn’t a priority for them

> local regulations make it prohibitively expensive

Local regulations can be pre-empted by state or federal legislation. The real problem is lack of political will to do it.

Surely there are existing rails right now that could be transformed into a bullet train line.

Like properties and regulations are a true problem, but it's not like trains don't exist at all in America.

the US can't build bullet trains because they'd serve the average person and there's no money in serving the average person

Property rights, regulations and price are precisely the part of the American system that takes away that capability.

Weimar Germany also was fundamentally a liberal democracy. Hitler seized power legally.

Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.

Ironically, there is a rich history of mandatory anti-gay camps in the United States, while there are zero instances of mandatory diversity/LGBT camps.

do you ever get tired of making up scenarios to be scared about lgbt people?

You sure have a way of making the Chinese system sound even more appealing.

Can we just call it what it is?

Fascism (in the Mussolini model) in everything but name.

- Hyper-Nationalism & Rejuvenation - State-Controlled Capitalism (Corporatism) - Authoritarian & Cult of Personality - Militarism & Irredentism

And they have technology to maintain control rather than needing the Black-shirts.

There are differences obviously to fit Chinese culture, but there are many parallels.