…the highest principle in designing or building a cottage, that it should be truthful, that is, should clearly express the modesty and simplicity of cottage life. Hence, not only should the cottage aim to look like a cottage, but it should avoid all pretension to what it cannot honestly and faithfully be. And as its object is first utility, and then beauty, the useful should never be sacrificed to the ornamental, but the latter should more obviously be connected with, and grow out of the former, in a cottage than in a more elaborate dwelling.
The cottages profiled by the New York Times strike me as being very fake. I think this is because the houses profiled in the New York Times article are trying to portray their owners as having different values then they in fact posses. This is not the case with the house built by the King of Scrounge.
America’s aging infrastructure is in the news a lot these days. A lot of this is due to politics. Obama thinks he can create a lot of jobs by rebuilding infrastructure, so he and his political allies have an interest in explaining to everyone why the infrastructure needs to be repaired.
As for me, I have mixed feelings about all this. I am on record as being one of those who is worried about America’s aging infrastructure. I would rather see the government spend money on infrastructure then on bailing out the automakers or investment bankers. But why is everyone so worried about our infrastructure now that we are in the middle of an economic crisis?
The answer is obvious. People feel the need to stimulate the economy. And rebuilding infrastructure seems like a better idea than paying people to dig holes in the ground and then refill them. Thus, what the politicians are really after is jobs, not infrastructure.
This is a problem. Infrastructure built to provide jobs tends to be poor quality and built in the wrong places. This type of infrastructure will not do much to help the underlying problem that threatens to bring America’s infrastructure to third world levels.
American politicians seem determined to follow Japan’s example in almost every respect. I have no real hope that Obama’s promised investment in infrastructure will be any different from Japan’s misguided efforts. I have no doubt that he will throw a lot of money at the problem, I just don’t think we will get very much infrastructure for our money.