ABSTRACT
Complexity reigns. But this was not always so. Well over two hundred years old (a record among democracies), our American Constitution is uniquely effective because of its elegant simplicity. For instance, the French – who launched their first republic after our independence – are on their fifteenth constitution, whereas ours still proudly stands the test of time. Many legendary U.S. inventors and early industrialists replaced cumbersome systems with beautiful new ones. They transformed the lives of millions in America with electricity, running water, new appliances, instant communications, and the automobile. Even when they took an invention from outside the U.S., our industrialists developed it on a massive scale that allowed its use by most in the middle classes. American railroads, a towering achievement of the nineteenth century, were helped by universal automatic coupling to simplify train formation, standard boxcars, and the Westinghouse compressed air brake, allowing lengthy convoys to carry more goods on fewer traffic patterns. We won World War II with a lot of relatively simple and rugged hardware: the M1 Garand service rifle; the Jeep; the GM truck; the bazooka; the Sherman tank; the nylon parachute; the Landing Craft; the DC 3 or C-47 “Skytrain” transport airplane; the Flying Fortress; and the Liberty ship. All were designed for mass production, simplicity, and effectiveness of use and were not over-engineered. We also won the Cold War with the simple premise that free markets could provide much superior outcome than economies relying on complicated and eventually futile central plans.
