So guess where these homes are located? ;)

[tank_monkey]

A weird little trivia challenge. Don't cheat and try to look it up. Just take your first guess! I suspect you won't be even close. :D

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r84/Coolweather762/Test%20of%20Public%20Viewing%20Folder/House2_zpsa7093d92.jpghttp://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r84/Coolweather762/Test%20of%20Public%20Viewing%20Folder/25714_zpsb8e12576.jpghttp://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r84/Coolweather762/Test%20of%20Public%20Viewing%20Folder/House_zps1852e025.jpghttp://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r84/Coolweather762/Test%20of%20Public%20Viewing%20Folder/452881516844_zps8d35829d.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r84/Coolweather762/Test%20of%20Public%20Viewing%20Folder/Bao-an2_zps87490c1e.jpg

[FunkyPertwee]

How could we even know without being an expert on where the trees are from?

Looks like California or Florida, but you wouldn't be asking if it were that mundane.

[miketx]

shanghigh. :)

[Tomac yokctep]

India ?

[whiskeyman]

Not in the US.

[raxar]

shanghigh. :)

my guess was china as well

[sevlex]

Oakland

[Phil125]

North Korea

[Gunreference1]

Spain?

Steve

[Krupski]

Ferguson?

[btcave]

White shirts, basketball hoops, bicycles and mopeds and humid weather vegitation...

Vietnam.

[tank_monkey]

It's the suburbs of Shanghai CHINA. Sure, there are the 'old' parts of town that look like a foreign place, but now there are tons of new cities with skylines that look like VEGAS or NYC and suburbs that look like a lot of places in the U.S. I was kinda shocked when I (rather accidentally) started perusing the "For Sale" home listing in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other large metropolitan areas of CHINA. Every country has modern cities, with industrial areas. But there are place in China where I would be totally confused if I was dumped there with no idea where I was, save for the people speaking Chinese. Weird!

[tank_monkey]

And The CHINESE apparently like building towns that look like Bavarian villages. hmmmmmm. okay........ Gotta admit, it's kinda funny to see all of this when someone drives around in China.

http://cdn.architecturelab.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/bavarian-starwood-hotel-dalian.jpghttp://jingdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/hallstatt.jpg
http://jingdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/thamestown.jpghttp://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--Iih--pKc--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/kh3g6d9atbrocmevbzvl.jpg

[FunkyPertwee]

And let me guess, all these places are still totally vacant because the Chinese have no idea how to plan for economic development.

They have whole cities that are sitting empty because they built a bunch of homes and businesses with no people to occupy them. No one can afford the houses, no one can open up shop.

[mrkalashnikov]

I'm not surprised the Chicoms have upper middle-class or opulent homes these days.

America has outsourced about 70% of our manufacturing base to those assholes over the last quarter century.

[tank_monkey]

I'm not surprised the Chicoms have upper middle-class or opulent homes these days.

America has outsourced about 70% of our manufacturing base to those assholes over the last quarter century.

Fair, China's been pretty assholish, I ask you "who's fault is that?" China didn't put a gun to our heads. It's the business leaders HERE IN THE US who outsourced all those jobs and products.

[mrkalashnikov]

Fair, China's been pretty assholish, I ask you "who's fault is that?" China didn't put a gun to our heads. It's the business leaders HERE IN THE US who outsourced all those jobs and products.

And how many of those US businesses went abroad due to exhorbitant labor union demands & wages? Paying a guy with a HS degree the better part of 70 or 80 dollars an hr to man an electric screwdiver on an assembly line while the same job could be done in China or Mexico for a fraction of that = massive fail in a modern global economy. Democrats love labor unions & vice-versa. The overwhelming majority of labor unions in this country backed Obama in both of his elections.

Yes, short-sighted corporate owners & leaders were/are complicit in the fiasco but there's plenty of blame to go around.

Clinton signing off on NAFTA and Bush1 giving the Chicoms Most-Favored Trading status was really the beginning of the bleeding.

[tank_monkey]

And how many of those US businesses went abroad due to exhorbitant labor union demands & wages? Paying a guy with a HS degree the better part of 70 or 80 dollars an hr to man an electric screwdiver on an assembly line while the same job could be done in China or Mexico for a fraction of that = massive fail in a modern global economy. Democrats love labor unions & vice-versa. The overwhelming majority of labor unions in this country backed Obama in both of his elections.

Yes, short-sighted corporate owners & leaders were/are complicit in the fiasco but there's plenty of blame to go around.

Clinton signing off on NAFTA and Bush1 giving the Chicoms Most-Favored Trading status was really the beginning of the bleeding.

Remember when a starting auto worker made $85K a year? I don't know what they make now but when that was the case, it was kinda outrageous. What I don't understand is the Pensions where they get 95-100% of their peak salary for life. Thankfully now a lot of those were renegotiated, but the UNIONS did a lot of damage from the 1970s to the 1990s. (Again, I'm not discounting the time they actually protected the workers, but the abuses far outweighed the benefits).

[Schuetzenman]

And how many of those US businesses went abroad due to exhorbitant labor union demands & wages? Paying a guy with a HS degree the better part of 70 or 80 dollars an hr to man an electric screwdiver on an assembly line while the same job could be done in China or Mexico for a fraction of that = massive fail in a modern global economy. Democrats love labor unions & vice-versa. The overwhelming majority of labor unions in this country backed Obama in both of his elections.

Yes, short-sighted corporate owners & leaders were/are complicit in the fiasco but there's plenty of blame to go around.

Clinton signing off on NAFTA and Bush1 giving the Chicoms Most-Favored Trading status was really the beginning of the bleeding.

Well jobs exiting the US isn't entirely Union related, though that does / did play a big part. The US tax rate on corporate profits is in the top 3 or 4 world wide. Reference Burger King about to move to Canada and become a Canadian corp so that they can dodge the high US tax burden.

[btcave]

The Chinese have built entire cities that are completely empty just to employ its populace. Google map China and you will see some serious public works as you scan their country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3XfpYxHKCo

[l921428x]

the U.S. has the highest tax rate, at 39%, on corporations, if I could dodge my tax rate and did would that make me smart?

[skorpion]

Only 1-car garages?

[T2K]

I knew it was China because of the blue thin horizontal license plates. I stayed at a Spanish friend's place in an "American style" suburb of China like that...back in 2001. Rent was US$5000/mth then. He was an engineer for a European company with a factory there.

China is often...not what people imagine when they think of China. I've had a lot of fun there on work trips and holidays.