Unintentional Irony in the State of the Union

While pointing out what a great country America is and implicitly comparing us to our competitors such as China, Obama made the following remark in his most recent State of the Union Address:

China is building faster trains and newer airports. Meanwhile, when our own engineers graded our nation's infrastructure, they gave us a "D."
We have to do better. America is the nation that built the transcontinental railroad, brought electricity to rural communities, constructed the Interstate Highway System.

The irony comes in using the transcontinental railroad as way to highlight how capable Americans are.  The toughest part of building the transcontinental railroad was laying track across the Sierra Nevada's.  The American workers were unreliable, so Chinese workers were brought in to do the job.

These workers quickly earned a reputation as tireless and extraordinarily reliable workers--"quiet, peaceable, patient, industrious, and economical." Within two years, 12,000 of the Central Pacific railroad's 13,500 employees were Chinese immigrants.

Almost 150 years ago Chinese workers were brought in to do a job that Americans weren't willing or able to do*. Obama's speech writers were trying to make a more general point about the value of infrastructure in general while touching on the feel good notion that Americans can accomplish anything. It is amusing to contrast this message with the idea that 145 years ago the Chinese work ethic, technological expertise and cheap labor were what drove this particular American success.

*This isn't the only way history seems to be rhyming if not repeating. In response to the Chinese competition there was rampant protectionism of white labor with the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act to prevent Chinese immigration along with many local laws attempting to prevent Chinese labor competition from impacting white Americans.  These discriminatory laws ultimately led to a Chinese boycott of American goods in 1905-1906.
Edit: There is more. Chinese laborers in the US were also known as better savers back then, as many of them were able to refrain from spending a large portion of their paycheck on alcohol.
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You're post appears slightly misleading Jeff. First, the transcontinental highway was not "driven" by Chinese technology (etc). Congress authorized the project, at twice the federal budget and it was 1,800 miles long and involved more than 100,000 people and/or a swath of companies, politicians, and individuals to get done. Perhaps you meant an important part of the highway was constructed by cheap, hard working Chinese immigrants. You're correct that the Chinese labor that was brought in was "willing" to do a job the other 90% of Californian's were not, but the work was beyond grueling (for little pay) -- apparently not "worth it" for many "Americans" (using what appears to be your definition of white, second generation Americans) until the economy worsened in the 1870's (at which time that group became violent). Its sort of like saying US restaurant innovation (an argument for sure) over the past two decades has been driven by Mexican work ethic, expertise and cheap labor; partly true, given the make-up of employees, but misleading given the large and innovative steps that US entrepreneurs and chefs were willing to take. (this point is illustrative and there's probably dozens more in science and technology that are better choices). Ironic perhaps without details or in quick passing but seems to be more of an attempt to modestly insert your political opinion of Obama -- but i could be way off.
— Slowfood
The term technology might be a little misleading, I didn't mean to imply that machines were taken from China to help with construction as some people might think when they hear the word "technology" but rather that Chinese workers had tools and techniques to get the railroad build through the mountainous area.

It would not have gotten through the Sierra Nevada in anywhere near the time and cost it did without Chinese workers. Without getting through this area it would not have been a transcontinental railroad linking the main body of the US to the pacific ocean for quite some time, but instead a railroad that went out to the middle of nowhere. If you are implying that cheaper white workers could have been hired in 1870's to get the job after wages collapsed then you should consider that a gigantic industrial project that needs to wait for a banking panic and recession to hire workers to complete the job might be a large project that never gets completed, for obvious reasons.

You are right there was a lot of work was done elsewhere and that subsidies such as all of the land given transcontinental railroad companies were key in getting the whole thing built. But the fact remains that Chinese workers were an essential factor in its completion.

You do bring up a good point about restaurants, low Mexican immigrant labor has been mentioned as one of the larger reason why US restaurants in large metropolitan areas produces such good a good average quality food relative to other parts of the developed world. Except for the case of Mexican food, this is because making good food is often a labor intensive process and not due to any specific Mexican knowledge.

Btw - another interesting corollary to today is that back then Chinese workers were paid less but often became wealthier than the average American laborer because most of them were able to refrain from spending a large part of their pay check on alcohol each week.

— Jeff Lonsdale
Btw - as for the motivation of the post, it was more because I was reading a bit about the history of Chinese workers and the transcontinental railroad, specifically how it ties in to the United State's 1905/1906 relationship with China. With that information fresh in my mind the transcontinental railroad example seemed very out of place.
— Jeff Lonsdale
Understood, and appreciate the context. I'd wager the group of Americans who headed west at that time were probably heavier drinkers (per dollar of income) than the rest of the country... It was quite a rowdy (and dreaming) bunch.

And don't slow the blogging down too much!

— Slowfood
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