My original point was that putting all of our eggs in the same basket is not a good idea, and that our urban cheerleaders have quality-of-life tunnel-vision.

My original point was that putting all of our eggs in the same basket is not a good idea, and that our urban cheerleaders have quality-of-life tunnel-vision. I do not believe it is necessary to quote chapter and verse to make that point. Where 75% of farm subsidies go or don't go, or what FHA claims as their goal, or the yield and quantity of soviet armaments, is just extraneous information. Playing with Google earth, or just being old enough to remember, will show that there's hardly a piece of dry land in this country that hasn't had a house, a road, or a gas station put on it. As for intention, perhaps I am giving the government too much credit? I read a lot of these 20th century memoirs and anthologies where some technocrat--like a von Neumann or a Kennan--writes a missive, and a thousand wheels are set into motion. Looking back on it, the sheer efficacy of it all looks more like a missive than a popular movement. The popular movements, like prohibition or Iraq, are often far uglier.