Whoops, misled by pop history. I was going off memories of this:
The basic point still stands, though. There are good reasons why we no longer build in old-timey style.
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Also noteworthy is the fact that the mass slaughter of workers is not required to build epic engineering projects. Look at France, look at Germany; the public works over there are mindblowing. And all done in heavily regulated, heavily unionised contexts (by American standards).
