So there's this blog called Bad Science, consisting mostly of the articles that medical doctor Ben Goldacre writes for the Guardian. It's about pseudoscience, medicine and medical research. And also awesome.
The recent article was a wonderful bit of emotional whiplash, and is about as subject I think is useful to keep in mind when contemplating research. But really, I recommend reading everything.
http://www.badscience.net/2011/05/existential-angst-about-the-bigger-picture/
Also, the second-most-recent article, which should appeal to LW-types:
http://www.badscience.net/2011/05/we-should-so-blatantly-do-more-randomised-trials-on-policy/
Smart from one point of view, perhaps.
I see a great deal of criticism of it - that the investments are terrible, the market is over-saturated, things like high-speed rail are leading to perverse consequences like migrants overloading the bus system to avoid the necessarily high-priced tickets, and the whole shebang is basically welfare to keep the house of cards going until someone finally eats all the bad debt from the railroads (http://chovanec.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/beijings-bad-debt-bailout-problem-solved/) and other big projects you laud.