The Allegory of the Empire State Building
Late 1929 – Stock market collapse.
January 22, 1930 – Construction on the building begins.
May 1, 1931 – The Empire State Building opens. Hoover turns the lights on from DC.
Millions starve. Large tracts of the building remain empty.
1950 – Empire State Building becomes profitable.
Is the current stimulus package a macro Empire State Building? Are we enabling the wrong class, with the wrong tools, at the wrong time?
Kevin Kelly on Ownership
Excellent essay.
Government > Construction, Manufacturing
Fabius Maximus has the details.
Is the mass of a governance platform inversely proportional to its ability to innovate?
Minority Community Resiliency
Something to consider:
Many of the country’s minorities rely on long, complex supply chains for what is their equivalent of daily bread and butter. (Primarily Asians, but also Latin Americans, Middle Easterners, to varying degrees.) These supply chains are endangered for many reasons – credit crunch, warfare – and could, quite abruptly, come to a crashing halt, leaving minorities without their everyday staples.
Fortunately, most of these communities have their own infrastructure (primarily religious, but also community centers) that can, in a lot of ways, be leveraged to supplant these uncertain supply chains. Many of these are fledging buildings that have plenty of land to expand. Intead of additional buildings, community leaders should consider utilizing the land to grow community-specific vegetables and fruit, in greenhouses if necessary.
With the right mix of volunteer labor and subscription farming mechanisms could result in a buffer to global system shocks, additional revenue to strengthen community infrastructure, and a more cohesive community identity. Networking these, along already existing religious or cultural edges, could increase yields exponentially. Most will take on secular connections for proximity and greater output for all connected parties rather than the limitations associated with a homogeneous ecosystem. For example, small population minorities could piggyback on larger populations with more resources in return for labor, etc.
Lots of ideas on this to be discussed with community leaders and architects. Boot up your own conversation!
New Barnett Map
Good Magazine has a lot of good infographics. This is one.