Build Team

Diagnosis: 100 years ago, success in the construction industry was a matter of craftsmen doing their jobs well, because their reputations turned on the quality of their work—and a careless mistake brought a man shame. Today, the industry has devolved into a circular firing squad of lawyers battling lawyers over the ability of laborers, a social underclass scorned by lawyers, to adhere to regulations written thousands of miles away by yet more lawyers. Proof: ‘new build’ is a polite euphemism for a high-price, low-quality house.

Team mandate: The path to affordability: The New Athens Corp of Engineers. A large, ultra-low-cost construction workforce modeled on the Army Corp of Engineers, equal parts discipline and craft, led by expert tradesmen and staffed by young men and women in search of adventure and an alternative to digital life. Payment: room, board, minimum wage, and, after a 3-year tour of duty, full ownership of a single-family home.

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America built homes, businesses, and infastructure quickly, cheaply, and well.

Building in the real world (not the digital world) is slower, more expensive, and more bureaucratic than at any time in US history.