My friends over at the Gormogons note we used to be able to build all sorts of stuff fast:

Empire State Building: 410 days.
Rockefeller Center (14 buildings): nine years—of which Radio City Music Hall was done in the first two years and 30 Rock in three.
Golden Gate Bridge: four years.
Hoover Dam: five years.
North American P-51 Mustang fighter: 119 days.
The Pentagon: two years.
Manhattan Project: three years.
Gateway Arch: two years.
Apollo Program: eight years.

They go on to ask:

Note, some of these are private, some are government-built, some are private contractors building for the government. So that’s not the key vector, is it? So, Friedman, what’s the key factor here? Might it be regulation and the ability of small groups to tie up large projects through politics? If so, how do you square that with your advocacy of an increasingly large, progressive state? Or do you think our already large state just needs more power and will? If that’s the case, how do you disentangle yourself from association with the Continental, particularly German political-philosophical schools who followed that to some very troubling ends in Germany, Russia, Italy, etc.?

Update: I’m also told Rush covered this at some length today.

Oh, and for those of you who missed it, here’s my magazine piece on Friedman from last March. I’m fond of it.

And since we’re at it: More on China and/or Friedman.