The content of this article is written with authoritative information combined with personal opinions, and the source of the literature and screenshots have been marked at the end of the article, please be aware.
Preface
When it comes to the countries with the most rapid social development in the world today, there is a saying that "the Americas look at the United States, Europe looks at London, and Asia looks at Tokyo", and these three cities are almost the three most advanced representatives of modernization in the world today.
With the blessing of the world's largest economy and technology giants, the United States also comprehensively suppressed the other two of the above three representatives.
However, to our surprise, the wooden telephone poles that have been completely eliminated in the mainland, as a developing country, can be seen everywhere on the streets of the United States, the most developed country.
So why does the U.S. use wooden poles?
The difference between electric poles in China and the United States
As an ordinary infrastructure in our daily life, telephone poles can be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys of the mainland, and they are one of the necessary facilities to ensure the electricity consumption of our daily life.
In the history of the development of electric poles in the mainland, the mainland initially used wooden telephone poles......
Wait a minute, when it comes to wooden poles, many young friends may have questions, we have seen cement poles since we were children, where do they come from?
Red Network ""30 years, these wooden poles have finally been replaced"" 2015-08-03
Red Network ""30 years, these wooden poles have finally been replaced"" 2015-08-03
The mainland has long ago unified the replacement of telephone poles, and has completely abandoned the traditional wooden telephone poles, unified replacement with the mainland's latest third-generation electric poles, the material of which is made of cement.
Although wooden telephone poles have been completely eliminated in the mainland, wooden telephone poles can still be seen everywhere on the streets of the United States.
And many wooden poles have a certain degree of damage, and the relevant local departments in the United States still have no signs of replacing other materials of poles, and continue to use wooden poles.
The United States, the world's largest economy, must have the money to replace telephone poles, so why does the United States use wooden telephone poles? Is it because wooden utility poles are more environmentally friendly?
Why the U.S. uses wooden poles
First of all, the use of wooden poles in the United States is certainly not environmentally friendly, and it would be hard for us to say the real reason.
Due to land and geographical location in the United States, according to incomplete statistics, the area of forests alone has reached 3 million square kilometers, while the land area of the United States is only more than 9 million square kilometers, and the forest area accounts for one-third of the land area of the United States.
Due to the influence of latitude and topography, most of the forests in the United States are dominated by pine and silver cedar, and these tree types determine that most American trees are tall and stout.
And it is this type of tree that allows these trees to have a great application space, and has become the best choice for making telephone poles in the era when industrial products were not very popular at that time.
And we have to understand a cold knowledge, the United States does not have a unified management of electricity like the mainland, but implements private ownership of electricity, that is to say, as long as there is enough capital, you can use capital to develop electricity.
The private ownership of electric power also directly determines that the power enterprises in the United States will be the world of the capitalists, and the first priority of the capitalists is profit, and reducing costs has become the main job of the local power enterprises.
Due to the vast and sparsely populated area of the United States, the demand for electricity in many places is not very large, and in addition, in order to save costs, the use of wooden poles has become their first choice, as long as it is cheap and can be used, there is no need to consider other factors.
In light of this situation, it is reasonable that wooden telephone poles can be seen everywhere in the United States, and it is not an exaggeration to say that there is a two-way rush between wooden telephone poles and the United States.
Although American wooden poles have the advantages of low cost and material search, because of the particularity of wood itself, it also leads to great disadvantages of wooden poles.
Polaris Power Network, "U.S. UHV: Superpowers Don't Have Super Grids" 2018.9.13
Polaris Power Network, "U.S. UHV: Superpowers Don't Have Super Grids" 2018.9.13
Disadvantages of wooden poles
First of all, due to the particularity of the wood itself, it means that it cannot be compared with the extremely hard cement, and in extreme weather, the wood is likely to produce serious deformation, which is why many telephone poles on the streets of the United States are crooked.
Although the United States has some means and technology in waterproofing and isolating wood products, the forces of nature have always been beyond our human ability to fully contend with.
Not only can the wood itself be eroded and rotted by long-term blowing, but the wooden poles also have to withstand the "attack" of termites and other insects, and the extent of damage can be imagined.
In the face of natural weather phenomena such as typhoons, fires, and blizzards, the performance of wooden power poles is far inferior to that of cement power poles, and they often collapse and are damaged, which greatly affects the electricity consumption of residents.
During a blizzard in Texas, many wooden power poles were severely affected, resulting in large-scale power outages.
Due to the failure of Blizzard staff to remedy the situation in time, many residents spent nearly a month in an environment of more than ten degrees below zero.
Blackouts like these are common in the U.S. because of wooden power poles, so why doesn't the U.S. government come in to enforce improvements and guidance?
The United States, which is difficult to ride a tiger
In fact, the U.S. government has not thought of using means to change this phenomenon, but the government's funds are too limited, and what can be done is too little.
Wait, the U.S. government has no money, isn't that a big joke?
In fact, since 1974, the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Congress have signed a fiscal bill, which stipulates that the U.S. government cannot directly use state property in the U.S. treasury, and every entry and exit of funds must be approved by Congress.
This method directly restricts the United States, which has been privatized and monopolized by capitalists, and the United States has always admired money as a measure of status.
The U.S. government's desire to force the power capitalists to replace the power poles is equivalent to directly touching the jobs of the capitalists, and the capitalists will certainly use certain means to prevent the government's application for financial expenditure.
And the real face of these capitalists is even lower than we think, as long as they get any industrial projects of the state, then the first priority for them is to make money, and the rest is not in their consideration at all.
Therefore, even if there is some damage to the telephone poles on the street, as long as they can be used again, then the capitalists will definitely not invest in repairing and replacing them again.
The US government is also powerless to do anything about it, and if it has received the benefits of other capitalists before, it cannot interfere with the normal construction of other people, and the government can only swallow this dumb loss to itself.
epilogue
To sum up, the use of wooden telephone poles in the United States is really not for environmental reasons, the capitalists' capital operation methods are far more cruel than we imagined, in contrast, the mainland is completely out of all-round consideration for the people, putting the interests of the people first, which is also the real reason why the mainland can do better and better.
Primary sources
Red Network ""30 years, these wooden poles have finally been replaced"" 2015-08-03
Polaris Power Network, "U.S. UHV: Superpowers Don't Have Super Grids" 2018.9.13
Polaris Power Network, "U.S. UHV: Superpowers Don't Have Super Grids" 2018.9.13