The American Economy - and Construction
The American Economy - and Construction
We are a querulous lot, we humans, and freedom of speech and press provide us full license to
indulge ourselves in whatever depth of querulousness we might wish to indulge. And of course we
do; complaining seems to be the number one most popular indoor sport – well, maybe number two
or three.
Through the windows of the room over my garage, the room my wife used to call her “happy
room,” I have recently been watching a construction crew lay what looks like a new water pipe across
the field behind my house. And concurrently; reading a book (The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro),
that chronicles the construction of roads, parks and bridges in and around New York City over the
first half of the 20th Century; gave me cause to ponder that which enables us the luxury to
querulously complain.
At the beginning of the 21st Century the United States, with 5% of the world’s population,
contributed 25% to its economic output. Our 2005 GDP stood at 12.4 trillion dollars (Bureau of
Economic Analysis). I know, all these statistics just roll off of us anymore; they are just numbers, and
after all they really don’t apply to us individually, do they? The thing that caught my eye in the field
behind the house was the cranes, trucks and earth movers. How many such projects are on-going
across our nation? Some major projects, of course are really long term, taking several years; others
are completed in months. Several years? The Laon cathedral took 25 years, the Amiens cathedral
16. Building earlier edifices consumed generations, and do we even know the length of time it took
to construct a pyramid? How did they do it without mammoth construction equipment? We have a
pretty good idea, and it’s gruesome.
We are doing similar, continually: houses, roads, sewers, bridges, skyscrapers, dams, airports
and on and on. What we have wrought is truly awesome, and it continues uninterrupted. One of the
first things I noticed returning to the United States from overseas was the forest of cranes in San
Francisco – and they never seem to disappear; they just move to the next project. I returned home
from the DFW airport the other day, after having not been out there for awhile, and it was the same:
cranes everywhere. So much had changed in such a short time. Welcome the America.
The construction is just plain awesome, and it has not just begun. The towers of the Verrazano-
Narrows suspension bridge between Manhattan and Staten Island, built from 1959 to 1964, were so
far apart they had to take into consideration the curvature of the earth in building them; they used
enough wire in its cables to reach halfway to the moon, and an amount of concrete used would have
paved a single-lane highway from New York to Washington, D.C.. And that was fifty years ago.
Though not American the Öresand vehicle/rail bridge between Copenhagen and Malmö, begun in
1995 was opened for traffic in the year 2000. The bridge is 5 miles long, connected to a roadway
built across an island in the middle of the Baltic Sea and also includes a 2.5 mile tunnel. The bridge
has a 490 meter cable-stayed main span and pillars 204 meters high. More magnificence.
We could continue on, and before long (if not already) the mind would go numb, examples would
begin to blur one into the next and we would gradually lose the point of the conversation, which is the
amazing economy we – and others – have put together through human ingenuity and effort. Perhaps
construction is a small part, though I think not, but it is certainly an impressive part – not only the
building but the maintenance of it. Of course there is more, much more: the world system of finance,
computers and their software, the Internet, systems of laws and enough mechanical and electronic
wonders to render us speechless. And in 1900 only 5% of U.S. households even had indoor
plumbing.
Regrettably we have become so accustomed to these wonders we take them for granted. If we
see the cranes we don’t consciously think about them. Do we even stand back and observe the
miracle of merchandise that fills our malls and shopping centers? Not likely, at least not in those
terms. Years ago Soviet visitors were taken to a grocery store where their visit was taking place and
they accused their hosts of conducting them to a show place to impress them. They could not
believe there were others just like it right around the corner, and the next and the next. We are guilty
of similar; what have you done for us lately? And there are always those that have so much more;
poor us.
That, however, the expectations, the complaining, is not my point. My point is the munificence of it
all, the incredible luxury in which we live, the vast opportunities, the comfort – even the security. We
have it so good; we should appreciate; we should be thankful. We are really very, very fortunate.
We are a querulous lot, we humans, and freedom of speech and press provide us full license to
indulge ourselves in whatever depth of querulousness we might wish to indulge. And of course we
do; complaining seems to be the number one most popular indoor sport – well, maybe number two
or three.
Through the windows of the room over my garage, the room my wife used to call her “happy
room,” I have recently been watching a construction crew lay what looks like a new water pipe across
the field behind my house. And concurrently; reading a book (The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro),
that chronicles the construction of roads, parks and bridges in and around New York City over the
first half of the 20th Century; gave me cause to ponder that which enables us the luxury to
querulously complain.
At the beginning of the 21st Century the United States, with 5% of the world’s population,
contributed 25% to its economic output. Our 2005 GDP stood at 12.4 trillion dollars (Bureau of
Economic Analysis). I know, all these statistics just roll off of us anymore; they are just numbers, and
after all they really don’t apply to us individually, do they? The thing that caught my eye in the field
behind the house was the cranes, trucks and earth movers. How many such projects are on-going
across our nation? Some major projects, of course are really long term, taking several years; others
are completed in months. Several years? The Laon cathedral took 25 years, the Amiens cathedral
16. Building earlier edifices consumed generations, and do we even know the length of time it took
to construct a pyramid? How did they do it without mammoth construction equipment? We have a
pretty good idea, and it’s gruesome.
We are doing similar, continually: houses, roads, sewers, bridges, skyscrapers, dams, airports
and on and on. What we have wrought is truly awesome, and it continues uninterrupted. One of the
first things I noticed returning to the United States from overseas was the forest of cranes in San
Francisco – and they never seem to disappear; they just move to the next project. I returned home
from the DFW airport the other day, after having not been out there for awhile, and it was the same:
cranes everywhere. So much had changed in such a short time. Welcome the America.
The construction is just plain awesome, and it has not just begun. The towers of the Verrazano-
Narrows suspension bridge between Manhattan and Staten Island, built from 1959 to 1964, were so
far apart they had to take into consideration the curvature of the earth in building them; they used
enough wire in its cables to reach halfway to the moon, and an amount of concrete used would have
paved a single-lane highway from New York to Washington, D.C.. And that was fifty years ago.
Though not American the Öresand vehicle/rail bridge between Copenhagen and Malmö, begun in
1995 was opened for traffic in the year 2000. The bridge is 5 miles long, connected to a roadway
built across an island in the middle of the Baltic Sea and also includes a 2.5 mile tunnel. The bridge
has a 490 meter cable-stayed main span and pillars 204 meters high. More magnificence.
We could continue on, and before long (if not already) the mind would go numb, examples would
begin to blur one into the next and we would gradually lose the point of the conversation, which is the
amazing economy we – and others – have put together through human ingenuity and effort. Perhaps
construction is a small part, though I think not, but it is certainly an impressive part – not only the
building but the maintenance of it. Of course there is more, much more: the world system of finance,
computers and their software, the Internet, systems of laws and enough mechanical and electronic
wonders to render us speechless. And in 1900 only 5% of U.S. households even had indoor
plumbing.
Regrettably we have become so accustomed to these wonders we take them for granted. If we
see the cranes we don’t consciously think about them. Do we even stand back and observe the
miracle of merchandise that fills our malls and shopping centers? Not likely, at least not in those
terms. Years ago Soviet visitors were taken to a grocery store where their visit was taking place and
they accused their hosts of conducting them to a show place to impress them. They could not
believe there were others just like it right around the corner, and the next and the next. We are guilty
of similar; what have you done for us lately? And there are always those that have so much more;
poor us.
That, however, the expectations, the complaining, is not my point. My point is the munificence of it
all, the incredible luxury in which we live, the vast opportunities, the comfort – even the security. We
have it so good; we should appreciate; we should be thankful. We are really very, very fortunate.
Economy, Economy, Economy
North of Dallas run two major limited access highways, spreading like a V from Dallas and
running through the cities of Denton and McKinney. The space in this triangle is rapidly filling in
with houses, plants, roads, stores and other businesses - and it is doing so at a fairly rapid rate.
Fortunately for anyone enamored with beautiful scenery and has seen the area in question
there are few natural wonders being compromised, and the farmers are likely crying all the way
to the banks, although there is loss of the small town atmosphere that existed previously;
consider that as you may, but small town these days seems to be relative.
Is this "progress" positive or negative? Should we celebrate it or lament it? Is it really
progress? There are surely many views and even more opinions. Giving up farms for suburbs
is...what can I say? Tedious? After all family farms are finding it more and more difficult to
compete; but there is a certain reasonable nostalgia for farms and farmers as that is our legacy,
and one could (I would) say it is a backbone legacy: dedication, reliability, hard work and self
sufficiency. What is replacing it is less than that.
But with expanding population (for now) it is what must be, and it is the American dream: a
house in the suburbs, a nice house in a pleasant neighborhood with low crime, access, comfort
and all the amenities one could ask for: shopping, restaurants, services. So if sprawl has to be,
and it does, this is a nice way for things to sprawl.
The fit with the above is obvious: everywhere there is building, building , building. It really is
awesome; it never stops - at least for the time being. But there is more, and that is perhaps the
most important thing about our culture, our economy - it means opportunity. The major problem
in the world today is self support; in most places there are not enough jobs - not enough
opportunity. We have both: jobs for those who need them and opportunity for those who look
beyond mere jobs and the survival they entail. We even have to import people to fill the gaps
between opportunity for some and jobs that support them and make them possible.
It would be useful to put aside our national pastime of complaining and see the value of all
the activity. That's a short time view - sure. Maybe it can't last forever. But as long as our
population is expanding jobs are the difference between "progress" (individual) and the
alternative. Europe still has high unemployment; developing countries are being torn apart
because of lack of jobs and opportunities. Simplistic? Yes, but truthful enough.
Appreciate it. It is the difference between "them" and "us" whoever one might fit into those
categories. Despite all our complaining, wailing, worrying and criticizing we are incredibly
fortunate. We should be eternally thankful for what we have.
North of Dallas run two major limited access highways, spreading like a V from Dallas and
running through the cities of Denton and McKinney. The space in this triangle is rapidly filling in
with houses, plants, roads, stores and other businesses - and it is doing so at a fairly rapid rate.
Fortunately for anyone enamored with beautiful scenery and has seen the area in question
there are few natural wonders being compromised, and the farmers are likely crying all the way
to the banks, although there is loss of the small town atmosphere that existed previously;
consider that as you may, but small town these days seems to be relative.
Is this "progress" positive or negative? Should we celebrate it or lament it? Is it really
progress? There are surely many views and even more opinions. Giving up farms for suburbs
is...what can I say? Tedious? After all family farms are finding it more and more difficult to
compete; but there is a certain reasonable nostalgia for farms and farmers as that is our legacy,
and one could (I would) say it is a backbone legacy: dedication, reliability, hard work and self
sufficiency. What is replacing it is less than that.
But with expanding population (for now) it is what must be, and it is the American dream: a
house in the suburbs, a nice house in a pleasant neighborhood with low crime, access, comfort
and all the amenities one could ask for: shopping, restaurants, services. So if sprawl has to be,
and it does, this is a nice way for things to sprawl.
The fit with the above is obvious: everywhere there is building, building , building. It really is
awesome; it never stops - at least for the time being. But there is more, and that is perhaps the
most important thing about our culture, our economy - it means opportunity. The major problem
in the world today is self support; in most places there are not enough jobs - not enough
opportunity. We have both: jobs for those who need them and opportunity for those who look
beyond mere jobs and the survival they entail. We even have to import people to fill the gaps
between opportunity for some and jobs that support them and make them possible.
It would be useful to put aside our national pastime of complaining and see the value of all
the activity. That's a short time view - sure. Maybe it can't last forever. But as long as our
population is expanding jobs are the difference between "progress" (individual) and the
alternative. Europe still has high unemployment; developing countries are being torn apart
because of lack of jobs and opportunities. Simplistic? Yes, but truthful enough.
Appreciate it. It is the difference between "them" and "us" whoever one might fit into those
categories. Despite all our complaining, wailing, worrying and criticizing we are incredibly
fortunate. We should be eternally thankful for what we have.
It really does all blend together,
you know - the good, the bad and
the ugly - and the great, if you
think about it, despite the tugs on
the downside, which, after all,
are mostly within our collective
control - if we work together in
the right direction. Pipe dream?
Probably, but if it all falls apart,
that will be the reason it does.
you know - the good, the bad and
the ugly - and the great, if you
think about it, despite the tugs on
the downside, which, after all,
are mostly within our collective
control - if we work together in
the right direction. Pipe dream?
Probably, but if it all falls apart,
that will be the reason it does.