[SeekAndFind]

There was a time when America used to dream and build like that.

The Empire State Building was completed during the height of the great depression. The building itself cost $24,718,000 to build (nearly half the expected cost because of the Great Depression). Including the property on which the building sits, the total cost for the Empire State Building was $40,948,900.

The building was actually completed ahead of schedule, taking only one year and 45 days to build.

9 years after the 911 attack WE CAN'T EVEN *START* BUILDING THE FREEDOM TOWER. GO FIGURE !!

[Soul of the South]

We also went from Alan Shepherd’s flight in 1961 in a primitive on man capsule to a moon landing in 1969 using complicated docking maneuvers with two spacecraft. Today, we are retiring the shuttle fleet (first flight of shuttle in 1981) yet won’t have its replacement Orion until 2015 at the earliest with a 2020 return to the moon planned using Orion. 2020 is 11 years from now. It was only 8 years from Mercury to the Apollo moon landing.

It appears the America of the 1960’s could both dream and execute. The America of today struggles with both the dream and the execution.

[element92]

to post 9.

there is too much unoccupied
real estate

[lentulusgracchus]

Including the property on which the building sits, the total cost for the Empire State Building was $40,948,900.

Keep in mind those are prewar dollars.

Allowing for 10-12% inflation in 1940-41, just before the war, and 26% single-year jump in 1946, there was about 35-40% inflation from 1936 to 1950.

Furthermore, 1950 dollars had exactly 10 times the purchasing power of 2007 dollars. And there has been some inflation since 2007, although it's hard to get a handle on. Maybe 8-10%?

So do the math based on that.

Suitable multiplier, about 15x? About $615,000,000 in today's dollars?