Academic

MICHAEL S. MALONE: Why Can?t We Do Big Things Any More? There was a time ? was it just a gener?

By Glenn Reynolds

MICHAEL S. MALONE: Why Can’t We Do Big Things Any More?

There was a time ? was it just a generation ago? ? when Americans were legendary for doing vast, seemingly superhuman, projects: the Interstate Highway System, the Apollo Missions, Hoover Dam, the Manhattan Project, the Normandy invasion, the Empire State Building, Social Security.

What happened? Today we look at these achievements, much as Dark Age peasants looked on the mighty works of the Roman Era, feeling like some golden age has passed when giants walked the Earth. Even when we can still see the aged survivors of that era sunning themselves outside the local convalescent home ? or sitting down with us for family holiday dinner ? it?s hard not believe that there was once something larger-than-life about them that they failed to pass on to us. . . . We no longer build the world?s tallest buildings ? other countries do. We no longer reaching towards the moon ? other countries are. And when we do attempt something big ? universal health care, alternative energy, improved educational standards, mass transportation ? the initiative inevitably snarls up in bad planning, corruption, political pay-offs, lack of leadership, impracticality and just sheer incompetence. The comparatively tiny Lincoln Administration managed to win the Civil War, open up the Great Plains through the Homestead Act, and kick off construction of the transcontinental railroad. . .all in four years.

Back then we had a leadership class that wanted America to be successful.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on December 18, 2010 (boomark / email).