{"id":86,"date":"2025-05-27T15:15:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T19:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/?p=86"},"modified":"2025-05-27T15:15:27","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T19:15:27","slug":"infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/","title":{"rendered":"Infrastructure Without Inhabitants \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The Hebrew Scriptures tell us when King David captured the cities of the Ammonites, he ordered its residents \u201c\u2026to work with saws and iron picks and iron axes, or sent them to the brickworks.\u201d\u00a0 (2 Samuel 12:31 NRSV) Although biblical scholars offer various interpretations, it appears to us the King set his captives on a building spree. We can find no evidence from the Holy Scriptures or other sources of what the Ammonites built or whether this did anything to improve the well-being of those who lived under King David. <\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">We mention this because as the military-political rivalry between the USA and China takes more ominous tones, China\u2019s economy seems to be at a crossroads. China\u2019s economic growth over the last 40 years has been spectacular, making China the \u201cworkshop of the world.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/world\/china\/china-economy-debt-slowdown-recession-622a3be4\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">It has lifted over 800 million Chinese out of extreme poverty (living on less than $2 a day). China\u2019s real per capita income has risen 25-fold from 1978 to 2019.<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">But while most of this miracle resulted from China opening up to the rest of the world and embracing policies that are more characteristically capitalist than socialist, the process has always been under the thumb of an authoritarian government. What impresses us is that much of China\u2019s growth since 2008 has been based on <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/world\/china\/china-economy-debt-slowdown-recession-622a3be4\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">erecting infrastructure and buildings<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, led by quasi-state entities that borrowed and invested in the projects. Seems their profitability was not the first priority.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2023\/08\/china-two-cheers-for-a-slowdown\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">China created this construction boom through policies that limited investment opportunities for household savers, artificially kept borrowing rates low, and funneled resources to local government financing vehicles (LGFV).<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> In recent years, domestic investment <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/world\/china\/china-economy-debt-slowdown-recession-622a3be4\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">accounted for 44% of China\u2019s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) compared to around 20%-25% in the rest of the world<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">. Housing construction accounted for up to 25% of China\u2019s GDP in some years. Housing construction has never accounted for more than 7% of the US GDP.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The result is thousands of miles of unused highways and 130 million unoccupied apartments. Many LGFVs are on the brink of bankruptcy. Yet, the government continues to focus on construction. One columnist opines China\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/25\/briefing\/china-economy.html\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u201cleaders have instead doubled down on\u2026(the) construction of more apartment buildings and factories.\u201d<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Most of us think the point of economic development is to improve the living standard of the average household not to construct large amounts of unused infrastructure, buildings, and factories.\u00a0 Seems neither President Xi nor King David got the memo.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Hebrew Scriptures tell us when King David captured the cities of the Ammonites, he ordered its residents \u201c\u2026to work with saws and iron picks and iron axes, or sent them to the brickworks.\u201d\u00a0 (2 Samuel 12:31 NRSV) Although biblical scholars offer various interpretations, it appears to us the King set his captives on a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[873,878,874,74,876,880,349,42,55,871,879,872,163,877,49,224,362,875],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-macroeconomics","tag-ammonites","tag-authoritarian","tag-biblical-scholar","tag-china","tag-china-economy","tag-construction","tag-economy","tag-gdp","tag-government","tag-hebrew-scriptures","tag-infrastructure","tag-king-david","tag-military","tag-per-capita-income","tag-politics","tag-poverty","tag-profit","tag-usa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Infrastructure Without Inhabitants \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Infrastructure Without Inhabitants \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Hebrew Scriptures tell us when King David captured the cities of the Ammonites, he ordered its residents \u201c\u2026to work with saws and iron picks and iron axes, or sent them to the brickworks.\u201d\u00a0 (2 Samuel 12:31 NRSV) Although biblical scholars offer various interpretations, it appears to us the King set his captives on a [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Econ Briefs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-27T19:15:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"christianhartselle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"christianhartselle\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"christianhartselle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/#\/schema\/person\/53f4e0b981fd42f34cbb306b9ad62622\"},\"headline\":\"Infrastructure Without Inhabitants \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-27T19:15:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/\"},\"wordCount\":412,\"commentCount\":0,\"keywords\":[\"Ammonites\",\"authoritarian\",\"biblical scholar\",\"China\",\"China economy\",\"construction\",\"economy\",\"GDP\",\"government\",\"Hebrew Scriptures\",\"infrastructure\",\"King David\",\"military\",\"per capita income\",\"politics\",\"poverty\",\"profit\",\"USA\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Macroeconomics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/\",\"name\":\"Infrastructure Without Inhabitants \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-27T19:15:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/#\/schema\/person\/53f4e0b981fd42f34cbb306b9ad62622\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Infrastructure Without Inhabitants \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/\",\"name\":\"Econ Briefs\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/#\/schema\/person\/53f4e0b981fd42f34cbb306b9ad62622\",\"name\":\"christianhartselle\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99dffdd2c9bd490eefa22ed0b6d8d8a277b0368e88948df516427d91d6bf8ea5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99dffdd2c9bd490eefa22ed0b6d8d8a277b0368e88948df516427d91d6bf8ea5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"christianhartselle\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/author\/christianhartselle\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Infrastructure Without Inhabitants \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Infrastructure Without Inhabitants \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs","og_description":"The Hebrew Scriptures tell us when King David captured the cities of the Ammonites, he ordered its residents \u201c\u2026to work with saws and iron picks and iron axes, or sent them to the brickworks.\u201d\u00a0 (2 Samuel 12:31 NRSV) Although biblical scholars offer various interpretations, it appears to us the King set his captives on a [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/","og_site_name":"Econ Briefs","article_published_time":"2025-05-27T19:15:27+00:00","author":"christianhartselle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"christianhartselle","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/"},"author":{"name":"christianhartselle","@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/#\/schema\/person\/53f4e0b981fd42f34cbb306b9ad62622"},"headline":"Infrastructure Without Inhabitants \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz","datePublished":"2025-05-27T19:15:27+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/"},"wordCount":412,"commentCount":0,"keywords":["Ammonites","authoritarian","biblical scholar","China","China economy","construction","economy","GDP","government","Hebrew Scriptures","infrastructure","King David","military","per capita income","politics","poverty","profit","USA"],"articleSection":["Macroeconomics"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/","url":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/","name":"Infrastructure Without Inhabitants \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-05-27T19:15:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/#\/schema\/person\/53f4e0b981fd42f34cbb306b9ad62622"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/27\/infrastructure-without-inhabitants-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Infrastructure Without Inhabitants \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/#website","url":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/","name":"Econ Briefs","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/#\/schema\/person\/53f4e0b981fd42f34cbb306b9ad62622","name":"christianhartselle","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99dffdd2c9bd490eefa22ed0b6d8d8a277b0368e88948df516427d91d6bf8ea5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99dffdd2c9bd490eefa22ed0b6d8d8a277b0368e88948df516427d91d6bf8ea5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"christianhartselle"},"url":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/author\/christianhartselle\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}