No, it's literally just bitflips. The supply of dollars increases by trillions a year between fractional reserve banking and, depending on the year, fed policy. We're not even printing them.
It's a way to represent that value. The number does not itself store the value, nor does changing the number transfer the value.
It's true that people work hard for that representation, because we've built systems where the link between the representation and the underlying value is quite strong, but it is still just a number at the end of the day.
What lets you claim actual resources is the number, plus the massive economic system that it lives within. The economic system is by far the more interesting and relevant part of that, as evidenced by the fact that most assets are not held in the form of money.
And yes, those others are great examples of this principle. The diploma is just a piece of paper and an entry in the university's records. Set it on fire and I still have all the skills and knowledge. Give me a good solid blow to the head which breaks the skills and knowledge, and you've destroyed what's actually useful and interesting, even though the diploma is completely intact. Likewise, citizenship is only relevant because it convinces other people to let me do things like work, cross borders, and vote (which is a whole other number-that-does-stuff-because-people-happen-to-agree-on-it system).
I'm not confused and I don't think money isn't real. I just understand what it actually is, versus what people agree to do with it. It's a typical example of the map not being the territory. Money exists, but it is not wealth or value. Money in an account is a number. Money as a system is a collective arrangement where money can be exchanged for goods and services, usually.
...and then whoever sold us the goods turns around and uses those dollars to bid up US assets. Next time you are bidding for a house, take some time to appreciate just how expensive those bit flips have made things.
It did make it easy to raise capital, though, which is nice.
Don’t blame imports for our sclerotic country banning construction nationwide. Plenty of countries have spent billions on new construction in the US and gotten smoked. The buildings still stand though.
The point is foreigners reinvesting those dollars into development in the US is... even more stuff in the US in exchange for bits.
Yes, it's owned by foreigners and sends cash overseas but all of the economic activity is here and if push came to shove.. they're not exporting the building.
It's not all gravy, there are issues with having global capital so deeply involved in the country, but it's better than the alternative, there's a reason Americans live so well and its not because they're all smarter or harder working.
The original post specifically wrote: "new construction".
As I understand, those investment waves were mostly buying existing assets, not building new ones. From your examples, do you have examples of significant new construction? I do not.
When I think of foreign investment to build things in the US, I mostly think about German/Korean/Japanese auto manufs and Korean/Taiwanese semiconductor manufs. Most people don't understand the massive investment that German/Korean/Japanese auto manufs have made into the US to build and operate plants in the last 30+ years. (This also includes local R&D centers.) It is huge, maybe more that the domestic manufs in aggregate. The same can be said for Korean/Taiwanese semiconductor manufs in the 2020s: The numbers are simply staggering and far exceed domestic producers.
I know what I said. Lots of foreign money backed construction loans got wiped out. The buildings are still there, the project went bankrupt, and the world kept turning.