Daily insights for city builders, delivered every morning at 6 AM ET. I’m Brandon Donnelly — a Toronto-based real estate developer and founder of Globizen. I’ve been writing here since 2013.

It’s time to build

Marc Andreessen’s recent essay, called “It’s time to build,” is destined to ruffle feathers. In it, he not only sings the virtues of building in its broadest sense — everything from healthcare and housing to education and manufacturing — but he calls out the western world for smug complacency with the status quo. We are no longer choosing to build. And a good example of that is how we have been managing (and mismanaging) this current pandemic.

Here’s an excerpt:

In fact, I think building is how we reboot the American dream. The things we build in huge quantities, like computers and TVs, drop rapidly in price. The things we don’t, like housing, schools, and hospitals, skyrocket in price. What’s the American dream? The opportunity to have a home of your own, and a family you can provide for. We need to break the rapidly escalating price curves for housing, education, and healthcare, to make sure that every American can realize the dream, and the only way to do that is to build.

Marc has also included a suggested reading list if you click through on the above tweet. By the time you do that, I am sure there will also be a lot of discussion around his essay.

One response to “It’s time to build”

  1. Scott Baker Avatar
    Scott Baker

    Thanks for the link. I wrote to Andreessen about our building, perhaps the most innovative in the world. http://bit.ly/Riverarch
    Let’s see if he’ll do more than just write an essay 🙂

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