Make No Big Plans

Since the post-Robert Moses era, urban planners have realized the perils of implementing sweeping, comprehensive plans. Michael Lind argues that the government -- in the middle of large reform programs for health care, the economy, energy, etc. -- should take note:

"Advocates of comprehensive reform often claim that you can't solve one problem in isolation. For example, supporters of comprehensive immigration reform argued that you can't have workplace enforcement and border security without a simultaneous amnesty, because that would create a pool of unemployed illegal immigrants trapped north of the newly controlled U.S.-Mexican border. Similarly, many supporters of comprehensive energy reform argue that you can't have more private R&D for clean energy without simultaneously stimulating demand by means of subsidies to clean energy industries. This is the Fallacy of Holism -- you can't fix anything unless you fix everything at once."