"One of the reasons I've come to New York to work is because I want to see it. New York is the beating heart of commerce"
For me NY is the informal capital of mankind. That's exactly why I went there for vocation. Quite impressive. But it also got me wondering about what NY could have been by now i.e. What quantity of office and housing space was added to Manhattan in the last decades in relation to the decades before? Zoning laws are to me just one another expression of a society that wants things to stay the same, because it's quite good now. It's about preventinting new stuff from happening. When watching the NY-skyline, do I see the concrete manifestation of a vibrant people or rather the remnants of what made it the informal mankind capital?
"All of this makes me a little sad actually because the US has forgotten it's route."
Some economists argue that the demographic dividend played a key role in the economic booms of Ireland but especially China. They also argue for considerable growth to happen in India and Brazil because of that. To me, the US is the oldest example of demopgraphic dividend at work. It's immigrants-turn-citizens concept basically made the rest of the world their asset of which to expect demographic dividend. The harsh immigration-laws are not that different from around the world, but considering from how they once were, todays laws are a negative archievement. They are there to prevent stuff from happening.
"The Roman Empire was enormous and collapsed. The British Empire was enormous and collapsed. Don't think it can't happen again."
This attitude of preventing new stuff (or competition or abandonment) is a major obstacle. One obstacle the Romans didn't overcome and neither did the British.
PS: The book "The New Deal in Old Rome" (http://mises.org/books/newdealoldrome.pdf) is a fun read, that's telling the story of roman decay using the language known from modern politics.
For me NY is the informal capital of mankind. That's exactly why I went there for vocation. Quite impressive. But it also got me wondering about what NY could have been by now i.e. What quantity of office and housing space was added to Manhattan in the last decades in relation to the decades before? Zoning laws are to me just one another expression of a society that wants things to stay the same, because it's quite good now. It's about preventinting new stuff from happening. When watching the NY-skyline, do I see the concrete manifestation of a vibrant people or rather the remnants of what made it the informal mankind capital?
"All of this makes me a little sad actually because the US has forgotten it's route."
Some economists argue that the demographic dividend played a key role in the economic booms of Ireland but especially China. They also argue for considerable growth to happen in India and Brazil because of that. To me, the US is the oldest example of demopgraphic dividend at work. It's immigrants-turn-citizens concept basically made the rest of the world their asset of which to expect demographic dividend. The harsh immigration-laws are not that different from around the world, but considering from how they once were, todays laws are a negative archievement. They are there to prevent stuff from happening.
"The Roman Empire was enormous and collapsed. The British Empire was enormous and collapsed. Don't think it can't happen again."
This attitude of preventing new stuff (or competition or abandonment) is a major obstacle. One obstacle the Romans didn't overcome and neither did the British.
PS: The book "The New Deal in Old Rome" (http://mises.org/books/newdealoldrome.pdf) is a fun read, that's telling the story of roman decay using the language known from modern politics.