4 ms·

We Used To Build Things. What Happened?

32 points by rmason 8mo ago

deadbabe 8mo ago
I think pretty much everything worth building that could be built and was feasible to build has now been built. There are no more big projects left to conquer, barring some massive advances in material science.
- basket_horse 8mo ago
  Tell that to the New Jersey transit trains that get delayed 15 minutes every time they go in and out of New York.
- onetokeoverthe 8mo ago
  [dead]
- jacquesm 8mo ago
  Everything, absolutely everything needs maintenance. Even the pyramids won't last forever and if you want your society to be sustainable you need to factor in maintenance. And often times maintenance is a harder problem than the initial creation.
  - tastyfreeze 8mo ago
    Maintenance also informs builders on what can be improved next time. For example, we now know that rebar reinforced concrete will eventually need to be replaced due to spalling. If we reinforced with glass or basalt rebar that problem is solved. It might fail a different way but it won't be from spalling. Over time we learn to build structures that last a long time and require less maintenance. Unfortunately, building codes are often very specific. Sometimes requiring specific materials. Using a different material requires proving it is a suitable replacement before construction. We have to allow builders to take risks. Sometimes we get a Tacoma Narrows bridge, sometimes we get a Hoover dam. But, the builders have to be able to try new things even if we get a few stinkers once and awhile.
    - jacquesm 8mo ago
      Excellent points: I learn more from maintaining code than from writing new code.
- owenthejumper 8mo ago
  That's just as nonsensical as the classic "Everything that could be invented has been invented already." You didn't read the article. It talks a lot about housing, high speed rail. Those are just two things we could be building right now.
ferfumarma 8mo ago
I think this thesis is completely broken. All of US manufacturing went to China because labor was cheaper. You can't build things when you don't have a robust manufacturing base
- sien 8mo ago
  One of the biggest things though is housing. The US, Australia and probably most developed countries have declining productivity in construction. (1985) https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w1555/w1555.pdf https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w1555/w1555... (2025) https://www.nber.org/digest/202502/stagnation-us-construction-productivity?page=1&perPage=50 https://www.nber.org/digest/202502/stagnation-us-constructio... That shouldn't be tied to China. Indeed arguably China might help with cheaper materials potentially.
davesque 8mo ago
The wealthy also stopped paying taxes so...what does this rich guy want exactly?
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 8mo ago
  That's categorically untrue.
  - iancmceachern 8mo ago
    I asked AI and it looks like it is true. I asked what was the tax rate percentage for the top 10 percent of income earners in the US for each of the decades from 1940 to now: 1940s: Peaked at 94% in 1944–1945. 1950s: Remained high, peaking around 91%. 1960s: Started at 91% and dropped to 70% by 1965. 1970s: Remained around 70%. 1980s: Dropped from 70% to 50%, ending at 28%. 1990s: 31% to 39.6%. 2000s: Decreased from 39.6% to 35%. 2010s: Ranged from 35% to 39.6%. Current (2020s): 37%. Also, in 1930 it was low as well. So it looks like the years in which we did the things Gary wants us to do again in his essay were all done during periods of time in which we taxed the super rich heavily. This seems at odds with this from him: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/garrytan_larry-and-sergey-cant-stay-in-california-activity-7415601818061205504-NWUJ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android&rcm=ACoAAA-OsD0BceAqvWUMre2uBVU5pddB4GfTbi8 https://www.linkedin.com/posts/garrytan_larry-and-sergey-can... I agree that we should do big things for the greater good. That's an easy sell for everyone. The real conversation needs to be about who pays for it, and how.
    - sien 8mo ago
      Federal Receipts as Percent of Gross Domestic Product has been roughly stable for more than half a century. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFRGDA188S https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFRGDA188S The top quintile of income earners in the US pay 34% of all taxes. The next quintile 26% . https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/who-pays-taxes-federal-state-local-tax-burden-transfers/ https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/who-pays-taxe... US Federal spending was 7 Trn in 2025. This is surely enough to fund things. https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/ https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/feder... That is more than the total GDP of any country except China and the US itself.
basket_horse 8mo ago
We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters
- tastyfreeze 8mo ago
  To be fair, you can buy a flying car. But they are less efficient than a helicopter.
mikelitoris 8mo ago
I’ll tell you exactly what broke: the social contract. When the rich find ways of not paying a dime “for the common good” and just free ride, plus move everything out of the country because it’ll make them a quick buck (but make everything worse in a decade-wise time frame), people stop agreeing to their enthusiasm for capitalism.
- cindyllm 8mo ago
  [dead]
Loudergood 8mo ago
Neo-industrialists were let off their leashes and went straight back to their old favorite, wealth extraction. Rockefeller strangled the economy by controlling the trains and pipelines undermining his competition rather than competing on quality. When they can hoard enough cash to buy any potential competitors (see Meta buying Whatsapp and Instagram) it distorts the market. VCs no longer want to build companies they want to sell them. Fossil fuel can't compete with wind and solar so instead it spends its resources trying to kneecap them rather than innovate. PE buys up all off an industry in an area and puts the price squeeze on the consumers. B2B has transitioned from one time sales to a focus on MRR. Microsoft jams copilot into everything whether it makes sense or not so that it can goose the usage numbers for investors. Google is incentivized to push ad clicks over legitimate results because it has no real competition. I could go on for pages and pages. Industry consolidation is what's destroying innovation.
7e 8mo ago
[flagged]
- mikelitoris 8mo ago
  [flagged]
  - happytoexplain 8mo ago
    These two attitudes are an excellent encapsulation. It's intractable. Civilization will continue, but in the long term we are done with the concept of large masses of people being happy.
kimmeld 8mo ago
Yes we stopped building. Because every new technology is sold as a way to fire people and not “grow the pie”. What do you expect? Rich folk don’t like it when poor people get more. It’s not partisan, it’s class based.
recursivedoubts 8mo ago
What happened to the US is the same thing that happened to florence, england and so on: elites figured out that usury was easier than manufacturing, so they financialized the economy
SanjayMehta 8mo ago
Simplistic answer: Excel spreadsheets. Apparently complex answer: quants. When we were selling our first startup, we hired an "expert" to value our company. He started the discussion with "what is the valuation you're looking for?" Then he started playing games with his "model" in Excel. The difference between industrial capitalism and financial capitalism is Excel.

32 points by rmason 8mo ago

I think pretty much everything worth building that could be built and was feasible to build has now been built. There are no more big projects left to conquer, barring some massive advances in material science.

basket_horse 8mo ago
Tell that to the New Jersey transit trains that get delayed 15 minutes every time they go in and out of New York.
onetokeoverthe 8mo ago
[dead]
jacquesm 8mo ago
Everything, absolutely everything needs maintenance. Even the pyramids won't last forever and if you want your society to be sustainable you need to factor in maintenance. And often times maintenance is a harder problem than the initial creation.
- tastyfreeze 8mo ago
  Maintenance also informs builders on what can be improved next time. For example, we now know that rebar reinforced concrete will eventually need to be replaced due to spalling. If we reinforced with glass or basalt rebar that problem is solved. It might fail a different way but it won't be from spalling. Over time we learn to build structures that last a long time and require less maintenance. Unfortunately, building codes are often very specific. Sometimes requiring specific materials. Using a different material requires proving it is a suitable replacement before construction. We have to allow builders to take risks. Sometimes we get a Tacoma Narrows bridge, sometimes we get a Hoover dam. But, the builders have to be able to try new things even if we get a few stinkers once and awhile.
  - jacquesm 8mo ago
    Excellent points: I learn more from maintaining code than from writing new code.
owenthejumper 8mo ago
That's just as nonsensical as the classic "Everything that could be invented has been invented already." You didn't read the article. It talks a lot about housing, high speed rail. Those are just two things we could be building right now.

ferfumarma 8mo ago

I think this thesis is completely broken. All of US manufacturing went to China because labor was cheaper. You can't build things when you don't have a robust manufacturing base

sien 8mo ago
One of the biggest things though is housing. The US, Australia and probably most developed countries have declining productivity in construction. (1985) https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w1555/w1555.pdf https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w1555/w1555... (2025) https://www.nber.org/digest/202502/stagnation-us-construction-productivity?page=1&perPage=50 https://www.nber.org/digest/202502/stagnation-us-constructio... That shouldn't be tied to China. Indeed arguably China might help with cheaper materials potentially.

davesque 8mo ago

The wealthy also stopped paying taxes so...what does this rich guy want exactly?

kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 8mo ago
That's categorically untrue.
- iancmceachern 8mo ago
  I asked AI and it looks like it is true. I asked what was the tax rate percentage for the top 10 percent of income earners in the US for each of the decades from 1940 to now: 1940s: Peaked at 94% in 1944–1945. 1950s: Remained high, peaking around 91%. 1960s: Started at 91% and dropped to 70% by 1965. 1970s: Remained around 70%. 1980s: Dropped from 70% to 50%, ending at 28%. 1990s: 31% to 39.6%. 2000s: Decreased from 39.6% to 35%. 2010s: Ranged from 35% to 39.6%. Current (2020s): 37%. Also, in 1930 it was low as well. So it looks like the years in which we did the things Gary wants us to do again in his essay were all done during periods of time in which we taxed the super rich heavily. This seems at odds with this from him: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/garrytan_larry-and-sergey-cant-stay-in-california-activity-7415601818061205504-NWUJ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android&rcm=ACoAAA-OsD0BceAqvWUMre2uBVU5pddB4GfTbi8 https://www.linkedin.com/posts/garrytan_larry-and-sergey-can... I agree that we should do big things for the greater good. That's an easy sell for everyone. The real conversation needs to be about who pays for it, and how.
  - sien 8mo ago
    Federal Receipts as Percent of Gross Domestic Product has been roughly stable for more than half a century. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFRGDA188S https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFRGDA188S The top quintile of income earners in the US pay 34% of all taxes. The next quintile 26% . https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/who-pays-taxes-federal-state-local-tax-burden-transfers/ https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/who-pays-taxe... US Federal spending was 7 Trn in 2025. This is surely enough to fund things. https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/ https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/feder... That is more than the total GDP of any country except China and the US itself.

basket_horse 8mo ago

We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters

tastyfreeze 8mo ago
To be fair, you can buy a flying car. But they are less efficient than a helicopter.

mikelitoris 8mo ago

I’ll tell you exactly what broke: the social contract. When the rich find ways of not paying a dime “for the common good” and just free ride, plus move everything out of the country because it’ll make them a quick buck (but make everything worse in a decade-wise time frame), people stop agreeing to their enthusiasm for capitalism.

cindyllm 8mo ago
[dead]

Loudergood 8mo ago

Neo-industrialists were let off their leashes and went straight back to their old favorite, wealth extraction. Rockefeller strangled the economy by controlling the trains and pipelines undermining his competition rather than competing on quality. When they can hoard enough cash to buy any potential competitors (see Meta buying Whatsapp and Instagram) it distorts the market. VCs no longer want to build companies they want to sell them. Fossil fuel can't compete with wind and solar so instead it spends its resources trying to kneecap them rather than innovate. PE buys up all off an industry in an area and puts the price squeeze on the consumers. B2B has transitioned from one time sales to a focus on MRR. Microsoft jams copilot into everything whether it makes sense or not so that it can goose the usage numbers for investors. Google is incentivized to push ad clicks over legitimate results because it has no real competition. I could go on for pages and pages. Industry consolidation is what's destroying innovation.

7e 8mo ago

[flagged]

mikelitoris 8mo ago
[flagged]
- happytoexplain 8mo ago
  These two attitudes are an excellent encapsulation. It's intractable. Civilization will continue, but in the long term we are done with the concept of large masses of people being happy.

kimmeld 8mo ago

Yes we stopped building. Because every new technology is sold as a way to fire people and not “grow the pie”. What do you expect? Rich folk don’t like it when poor people get more. It’s not partisan, it’s class based.

recursivedoubts 8mo ago

What happened to the US is the same thing that happened to florence, england and so on: elites figured out that usury was easier than manufacturing, so they financialized the economy

SanjayMehta 8mo ago

Simplistic answer: Excel spreadsheets. Apparently complex answer: quants. When we were selling our first startup, we hired an "expert" to value our company. He started the discussion with "what is the valuation you're looking for?" Then he started playing games with his "model" in Excel. The difference between industrial capitalism and financial capitalism is Excel.