The men who united the States

What Hacker News says

1. msisk6Aug 2016
   I'd recommend anything by Simon Winchester.

   He writes interesting non-fiction books and reads them for the audio versions.

   Just this morning on my drive into work I finished "The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible". Before that was "Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers".

   Previous books of his include "The Map That Changed the World" about the first geologic map of Britain", "The Meaning of Everything" about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, and "Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded". Good listens, all.

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2. dredmorbiusMay 2016
   Strongly recommended: The Men Who United the States, by Simon Winchester. Covers more than just roads, though that's included.

   What's impressive is to realise how recent most modern US travel infrastructure is. The Interstate Highway System wasn't begun until 1958.

   https://www.worldcat.org/title/men-who-united-the-states-ame...

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3. dredmorbiusJul 2017
   So, you're finally getting to the point of noticing things and raising some interesting points. A few of which I was hoping you might turn up.

   We're also getting pretty late in the stage of an HN discussion. I don't know where else you comment on things, but I'm active on Reddit, and run a sub there. I've just created an open thread post: https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/6l5nfd/open_th...

   Some of the points you've raised:

   * Failures of composition: what's logical for a single agent isn't beneficial on net for society as a whole.

   * When you're driving into Manhattan, you are directly benefitting by the existence of the rail network as it reduces the congestion of the roadways you're on. That is, if your time, or transit flexibility requirements, make rail unattractive, you are an external beneficiary of that rail network. (Positive externality.) Ergo: you should pay for it.

   * "NYC's GDP dwarfs that of the state as a whole, so it should pay for its own upkeep." Interesting perspective, one which could be further discussed.

   * Not made, but possibly imputed: NYC's notional financialised GDP exceeds that of rural districts ONLY BECAUSE of favourable consideration NYC has been able to impose on the very notions of property, market price, and relative surplus value capture. You haven't gone there, but I will. It's an interesting argument and turns many economic core/periphery arguments on their head.

   * NYC is a capability centre whose benefits spill out over not only all of New York State, but much of the US and world. To what extent does this justify various forms of tax in support of NYC?

   * Transportation and explicit vs. implicit subsidies. Again: there's a vast literature on this topic of which you're evidencing little familiarity. I'm not saying you haven't read it, though you're not arguing in a way which suggests you have. Going back to Smith again, largely Book V, which deals with such matters, though I could point to many other elements -- the justifications for creation of canals, railroads, postal roads, post offices, libraries, schools, public universities, the aviation industry, highway systems, and publicly-managed ports, all come to mind. Simon Winchester's The Men Who United the States addresses many of these elements, though not from a principally economic perspective.

   Keep in mind that the notion of trans-continental or inter-continental travel occurring within hours rather than days, weeks, months, or years is one that's only about 60 years old.

   And again: if you want to continue this discussion, I invite you to Reddit, where it's easier to keep an exchange alive.

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