February 4, 2026
From Moonshots to Red Tape Knots
We Used To Build Things. What Happened?
From moonshots to 140 characters: who killed America’s big builds
TLDR: Garry Tan says the U.S. swapped big builds for red tape and urges a return to “builders.” Commenters brawl over blame—bloated permits, factories moved to China, or tax-dodging billionaires—while joking we got tweets instead of flying cars, underscoring why progress feels stuck.
Silicon Valley’s Garry Tan just tossed a grenade into the group chat: America used to build canals and moon rockets, now we build excuses. His rallying cry—amplifying historian Jason Crawford—says progressives once loved progress, but a maze of vetoes and 1,700-page environmental reviews strangled ambition. The pandemic’s shortages proved it: scarcity, not abundance, is the new normal.
Cue the comments cage match. One camp shrugs that the frontier is finished—“everything worth building is built,” says one fatalist. Another fires back that we outsourced our muscles: “manufacturing went to China… you can’t build without factories.” Then the populists storm in: if the rich won’t pay taxes, who funds the next TVA dam or moonshot? “The social contract broke,” says another, pointing at offshoring and billionaire tax games. Meanwhile, the meme squad drops the classic zinger: “We wanted flying cars, we got 140 characters.”
It’s a three-way blame-fest—red tape vs. offshoring vs. billionaires—but nobody’s short on spice. Tan’s call to “become builders again” gets cheers from YIMBY (build-more-housing) types and eye-rolls from skeptics who want receipts, not vibes. If America’s stuck in “vetocracy,” the comments want to know: who cuts the knot—Congress, capital, or the C-suite?
Key Points
- •The article argues the U.S. shifted from historical large-scale building to regulatory barriers that impede projects.
- •It cites historical achievements: the Panama Canal, TVA electrification, and the 1969 Moon landing as evidence of past capacity.
- •The Niskanen Center’s concept of “vetocracy” is presented to explain how accumulated veto points now block projects.
- •NEPA environmental impact statements have expanded from brief documents in 1970 to an average of 1,703 pages, increasing project delays.
- •Derek Thompson’s “abundance agenda” links pandemic-era shortages to broader scarcities, suggesting America stopped building enough.