But come on. In Manhattan, the government interferes just as much, but on the OPPOSITE end. They don’t WANT you to build them tall. They don’t want you to make them great. There are height restrictions all over Manhattan, in the Village, in Hell’s Kitchen, etc. I don’t care that Dubai is doing it – more power to them. But I do want our government to stop its interference. And there’s plenty of demand for living space here in Manhattan. So I reiterate: the bigger, the better.

It is absolutely pathetic that we’re not building tall skyscrapers like that here in America.

It would be truly pathetic if we built anything just to impress a bunch of totalitarian sheiks.

Actually, there are lots of great reasons that enormous, ornate skyscrapers aren’t being built in the US (and probably shouldn’t be). The most significant being that the same kind of space restrictions that exist in Dubai don’t necessarily exist in the US. But significantly as well, the Dubai government heavily subsidizes foreign investment and construction projects, with the crown Prince of Dubai also being president of the Dubai Development and Investment Authority. Additionally, the Emirate’s most important development company, Emaar Properties, which, consequently, is building the Burj Dubai (the building the picture in Radley’s link was taken from), is partially owned by the government (and many of the shares that aren’t outright owned by the government are owned by prominent government officials). Not to mention that Dubai’s entire construction industry is fueled by an exploitative labor system rife with human rights abuses, and where protests over unpaid wages and working conditions can result in deportation from the Emirate.

All things considered, I’ll take my buildings a little less ornate, and a little tall. In a free market, the government doesn’t subsidize giant national penis-replacement projects.

I read about how Dubai has become wealthy enough to support their building boom, and it just doesn’t seem sustainable to me. I think it may become the world’s largest Potemkin village. But what do I know?

They also block any websites that may have adult content (hey, I’m a sailor, give me a break), but you can go to the York hotel and get a whore whenever you want. In a nutshell, it’s a weird place.

Haven’t we?