I am posting about the empty industrialized cities in china, specifically the ones that are modern and have booming real estate markets at present. The uninhabited cities in china demonstrate a utopian tendency within industrial societies. They tend to think that they will always invent a technological way to solve the problems that are the result of the constant growth necessitated by industrial society. These problems range from pollution, to nutrition, to climate change, to economics.  People in industrial society expect multi-national corporations and government to solve these problems by funding and encouraging the creation of things that solve pollution, malnutrition, and climate change. The idea that the elite “super-humans” that corporations are in this society, will save us is a utopian and naïve expectation. This expectation is faith based and dangerous. People can do lots of things in their daily lives to reduce pollution or improve their nutrition. People in industrial societies are pressured to believe that endless economic growth is possible. This is another utopian dream of industrial society.  Endless growth is impossible insofar as the resources on the planet are finite. The uninhabited cities in China are uninhabited because there is a lock of people to populate them, because enough people are still living an intensive agricultural lifestyle after Mao imposed it on all of China. China assumes that people are going to be driven from the farms to the factories, but they have forgotten what happens when their workers organize and finally increase their wages. Eventually all the industry leaves or collapses whichever comes first.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/business/global/20ghost.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0