3 ms·

Data / examples?

• dredmorbius 10y ago
  Infrastructure, particularly transportation and communications. Ports, navigational aids (from lighthouses and buoys to GPS), railroads, telegraph, transoceanic cables, rural electric and telephone service, highways and interstates, airports, air traffic systems, standardisation of parts, measurements, communications, frequencies, procedures, accident and incident investigation. We devalue commodities because their price is low, but the value if often quite high. I'd knocked an argument against supplying California agriculture with water in favour of municipal use, in part on the basis that ag prices are depressed in a highly distortionary fashion. But if you want the real winners, look at coal, oil, and gas, which are underpriced by factors of hundreds, thousands, or millions, and which make the modern world possible. The end of that gravy train will be painful.
  • TeMPOraL 10y ago
    > standardisation of parts, measurements This is what probably single-handedly enabled technological civilization. The original walled gardens, craftsmen making each according to their ideas and workshop setup, were putting a cap on complexity and reliability of things. Without standardization and commoditizing, there's no way for one to specialize on providing parts for the solution.
    • dredmorbius 10y ago
      Necessary but not sufficient