Pictured: Shanghai Bridge Made of Rubbish Collapses - Made In China

sankakucomplex ^ | Jan 1, 2010

[JoeProBono]

Citizens of Shanghai are aghast at the collapse of a major new bridge, pictured, which was revealed to be constructed partially out of rubbish instead of concrete.

The bridge, spanning the Wusong River in central Shanghai, was completed in 2009 and replaced a century old bridge with a more modern design.

However, after only a short period in operation the bridge began to collapse, with investigators finding such sturdy construction materials as bags of rubbish, Styrofoam, scrap wood and waste plastic used in the structure in place of reinforced concrete.

[Skenderbej]

Looks like CNN/MSNBC etc. have a new business model for their news websites.

[Travis McGee]

China is now where we used to be back in the era when cheap fragile substandard wire was sold to hold up the Brooklyn Bridge and cardboard mortuary shoes were sold to the Union Army infantry. Robber barons whose philosophy is anything we can get away with for a buck no matter who gets hurt.

The term "Shoddy" came from our Civil War experience with slipshod war profiteers.

[Travis McGee]

Nothing improves QC appreciation like a round of executions of engineers and inspectors.

And they will.

[Secret Agent Man]

In addition other places had melamine and lead filled areas.

[sweetiepiezer]

Thanks for the ping.

[JACKRUSSELL]

Happy New Year!

[Mears]

Ditto!

[Cacique]

InChina they take corruption and stuff like this seriously. If the idiots involved are still in China expect those execution vans to come visiting, after a quick trial of course.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

A friend who lived in Southeast Asia for many years marveled at the locals' satisfaction with mimicry in products. Things like ersatz toothpaste, didn't matter if the actual product looked and tasted like library paste as long as the tube said "Colgate" or "Crest" on it. Often the tube would be a re-inflated Colgate or Crest tube, stuffed with some sort of unidentifiable and completely ineffectual goo.

In this case, it looks like a bridge, and that might have been good enough, until it fell down.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

“Think about the amount of money that China has spent on infrastructure. Their ports, their train systems, their airports are vastly the superior to us now, which means if you are a coporation deciding where to do business you’re starting to think, ‘Beijing looks like a pretty good option.’” —Barack Obama, August 21, 2008

[1010RD]

Robber barons whose philosophy is...

lowering the price to make it affordable to everyone.

Robber Baron is a populist term meant to disparage great men who made America great. In general they fought government monopolies and lowered costs drastically to consumers. To disparage them is the height of ignorance and supports communist thinking.

Do some research and you'll be surprised how wonderful these guys really were to our nation's prosperity and freedom. Teddy R. did the country a disservice persecuting them.

[HereInTheHeartland]

Union labor

[JoeProBono]

[HereInTheHeartland]

Hah!!
Those union guys love their lunch breaks!