In the transportation infrastructure industry we know that China is outspending and outbuilding us, making future trade competitiveness a scary nothing to consider. But how about this simple single sentence to help us put just how far we are falling into perspective:

A new skyscraper is built every five days in China and by 2016 the country will have 800, four times the number in the US, according to a report released Monday by the Shanghai-based Skyscrapers Magazine.

Or this one:

China started construction on more than 200 skyscrapers this year, a figure equal to the total number of skyscrapers in the US, according to the report.

Wow. On the other hand, this report in Global Times does present the other side of the coin, that a lot of these buildings may have a negative side greater than the positive. Nevertheless, as our spending on transportation infrastructure remains stalled, expanding economies such as China are building. It may not be pretty, but it increases their comparative competitiveness daily.

And didn’t we used to be the guys who took on bold projects and charged ahead, sometimes with more enthusiasm than certainty because, in the end, that’s how we got ahead and stayed there?