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I recently read Grandin's book after learning about this from a Priceonomics article. It's fascinating not just for the way that it ultimately failed, but also
by OrwellianChild 10y ago
I recently read Grandin's book after learning about this from a Priceonomics article. It's fascinating not just for the way that it ultimately failed, but also the level of power and influence that Henry Ford had at the time to be able to do it at all...
The Ford Company was privately held, and what Henry Ford said, went. Enormous amounts of time, money, and manpower went into developing this colony, on the back of ideology as much as the promise of economic return.
The closest examples I can think of in modern times for this kind of project are in folks like Musk and Allen (and his Vulcan real estate development group), but they are much more capitalistic in motivation.
- vram22 10y agoI remember reading in an old issue of National Geographic magazine, about a similar project, also in the Amazon region, IIRC, by the American billionaire Daniel Ludwig. Googled and found it: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jari_project https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jari_project https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_K._Ludwig https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_K._Ludwig
- LeifCarrotson 10y agoI have heard that pre-WW1, pre-WW2, and pre-atom bomb, there was a culture of hopefulness and idealism that we could soon cure all humanity's ills with technology and progress. Unfortunately, those events served to at least partially extinguish that dream.
- RangerScience 10y agoIt's definitely coming back, that hopefulness.