Much of the enormous engineering of the Victorian era survives to this day and is often still functioning. It…

Much of the enormous engineering of the Victorian era survives to this day and is often still functioning. It was targeted at the public good. Today if we get infrastructure at all, it’s most often like an episode of Utopia. Politicians hijack it for votes. 1/3 https://t.co/mUrdbWDwW7

This picture represents the Victorian’s visions for the future. Something really stands out, the collective flavour of those dreams. The public good. A society must align its status hierarchies with the realities of public provision. Or it’s dead. 2/3 https://t.co/hKsPmDxlEQ

What we call ‘the economy’ is not only hopeless at that, it’s hostile to it. That idea says just let everybody do whatever they like, and then the public good will spontaneously emerge. It’s the refrain we’ll be whistling as the ship goes down. /end