1. New York City once had a system of pneumatic tubes beneath is streets, whisking up to 6 million pieces of mail at 30mph around the city each day. The postal workers who staffed the system were known as rocketeers. about.usps.com/who-we-are/pos…
2. From the beginning, the pneumatic tube service was controversial. It was fast, allowing multiple messages to be exchanged between correspondents in a single day—and thus, a boon for business. It was also the most expensive way to move letters from one point to another.
3. It’s an old debate: Is the Post Office a service, facilitating public good at public expense? Or should it be run more like a business, looking for efficiencies and forcing customers to pay the cost of what they receive?
Trucks were slower—but much cheaper.
4. At the end of 1953, the last of the pneumatic mail was shut down. In 1971, the Post Office Department became the Postal Service, with a mandate to pay for itself. Today, “a series of tubes” is a metaphor for our IT infrastructure, no longer a literal description.
5. But the short-lived pneumatic mail is a good example of the possibilities of cutting-edge public services. It lasted decades longer than, say, the fax machine. And a century later, we still want to have all the benefits of public services, just not at public expense.
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1. I’ve spent the past several years trying to solve a riddle: Why has America ceased to be a land of opportunity for so many of its people? The answer, I’ve come to believe, is that we’re STUCK: penguinrandomhouse.com/books/700580/s…
2. For centuries, Americans were always starting over, always looking to their next beginning, always seeking to move up by moving on. Mobility has been the great engine of American prosperity, the essential mechanism of social equality, and the ballast of our diverse democracy.
3. At the peak of our mobility, perhaps one in three Americans moved each year. But over the last half-century, we’ve been slowly grinding to a halt. Today, it’s more like one in twelve.
1. We've had 32 presidents who've seen military service, and 31 of them were commissioned officers. Most Americans in uniform are enlisted personnel, but that experience is rare among powerful politicians.
2. James Buchanan served briefly as a private in 1812 in the defense of Baltimore. Among vice presidents, Walter Mondale made it to corporal; Al Gore was a Spec4.
3. The most interesting case is Hannibal Hamlin, who enlisted as a private in the Maine Coast Guard when the war began in 1861. When his unit was activated in 1864 to staff a fort in Kittery, he insisted on doing his part.
My colleague @sophieGG is a treasure—and today, in naming her a finalist for criticism, the Pulitzer board made that official. pulitzer.org/finalists/soph…
Also a Pulitzer finalist? This @julian_aguon story, edited by the incredibly gifted Lenika Cruz, that the jury called "both heartbreaking and hopeful.” theatlantic.com/culture/archiv…
1. Some recent stories that might be helpful in contextualizing tonight’s news 🧵
In December, Mary Zeigler listened to the oral arguments, and wrote that "the Court is poised to reverse Roe outright.” theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
3. Last week, Zeigler and Rachel Rebouché took a detailed look at the legal landscape that Roe will leave behind—where pressures might induce some states to reverse their current course: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
1. Saddened to learn of the death of Aaron Feuerstein. In 1995, when the textile mill he owned burned down, he said, “I’m not throwing 3,000 people out of work two weeks before Christmas.” apnews.com/article/busine…
2. That’s the moment that made him famous. But in the years that followed, he made another courageous choice: Keeping the mill open, instead of following the industry overseas. That cost him his company and much of his fortune.
3. Feuerstein pointed out that Lawrence's textile industry had grown fat on wartime contracts, but was putting the interests of shareholders ahead of workers, or the country. "I considered it immoral and unethical,” he said. He also blamed government policies.
1. Eric Adams has often told the story of his beating at the hands of NYPD cops in recent years. It’s powerful, and an experience to which too many New Yorkers of color can relate.
2. In 2014, he wrote in a NYT op-ed, "I didn’t want any more children to go through what I endured, so I sought to make change from the inside by joining the police department.”
3. In 2021, he wrote in the WSJ, "It was a traumatic experience and the reason I became a police officer. I wanted to change the New York City Police Department from the inside."