On Robert Caro’s study of Robert Moses:
Dwarkesh, when preparing for his Caro interviews, revists Caro’s books to draw lessons on power and one sticks out to me that illustrates Dan Wang’s point excellently:
> “The United States used to be, like China, an engineering state. But in the 1960s, the priorities of elite lawyers took a sharp turn. As Americans grew alarmed by the unpleasant by-products of growth—environmental destruction, excessive highway construction, corporate interests above public interests—the focus of lawyers turned to litigation and regulation. The mission became to stop as many things as possible. As the United States lost its enthusiasm for engineers, China embraced engineering in all its dimensions.” Robert Moses was so influential partially because he masterfully utilized both aspects of engineering and lawyerly societies. He used the Bridge Authority and bonds to secure capital to create projects and wield power, effectively snowballing that power into other areas through gaining political positions which made him more resilient:
“He had created, in all his different posts — chairman of the State Power Authority, chairman of Triborough Bridge Authority, Parks Commissioner, Long Island Parks Commissioner, Jones Beach Commissioner — such an interlocking web that you couldn’t fire him from everything, because the terms ended in different ways, and some you didn’t have the power to fire him from.” Dwarkesh Podcast Interview with Caro
—