The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

1972 CAN WE SUSTAIN PROSPERITY? 41Especially needed is recognitionof the plain fact that our societyhas done no more than climb thefoothills; the mountain top is along way off. On the technologicalfront, .certainly, there are stillchallenges galore. Perhaps attentionshould be shifted from outerspace to the Earth's crust. Thusfar the deepest we have dug is notmuch more than a mile. Undergroundhousing has been experimentedwith here and there, butthere is room for a. tremendousdevelopment in this field -- as anyvisitor to the underground homeat the last world's fair in NewYork will attest.! It would not beout of the question to put a wholecity underground. As our reservesof basic metals and other resources,that we don't know how to replacein kind, become exhaustedthere will be increasing need forthe production of substitutes fromthe sand and other substances thatare available in inexhaustibleamounts. It's unlikely, but scarcelyinconceivable, that the problemof transmutation may be solvedthedream of the ancient alchemist.Our great railroad system isalmost prostrate, but it could be1 For the first outline of the possibilitiesof underground construction see theauthor's "On Going Underground," MichiganQuarterly Review, January, 1962,and a discussion ofthis article in the Sundayedition of the Detroit Free Press,March 31, 1963.restored and greatly advanced.Why not have tubes crossing thecontinent through which both passenger.and· freight trains couldmove at speeds of two or threehundred miles per hour? Thesefew suggestions are only a sma.llsample of major possibilities.And minor improvements - ofthe zipper class - are possible bythe thousand. We still don't havea pitcher from which we can pourour cream or syrup without dripping!Or even ·a, cereal dish witha slanting bottom, so that we cancream our corn flakes, by stages,without soaking the whole dishful.And when is somebody goingto come along with a good transparentplastic storm window, to behung inside on a roller, so thehouseholder can put it on or off ina twinkling?In conclusion I feel obliged toreturn to the point that we can'tput our feet back on the path thatmay lead, eventually, to the highestpeak, unless we abandon thedownhill track on which we arenow chugging along toward themistaken goal of complete governmentcontrol and operation - thesocialist state. Here is the crucial_~ifficulty that must be overcome ifan upward course is to be resumed.And daydreaming, disorder, anddestruction.won't help us to makethe shift.I