Des Moines
Article
Des Moines is a recurring place in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between May 01, 2023 and February 06, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as “lower-tier cities like Des Moines”; “your brother continues to be a successful real estate agent in Des Moines”. It most often appears alongside America, BEAD, Broadband Equity And Deployment Program.
Metadata
- Category: Places
- Mention count: 2
- Issue count: 2
- First seen: May 01, 2023
- Last seen: February 06, 2025
Appears In
- Change My Mind: Density Increases Local But Decreases Global Prices
- Money Saved By Canceling Programs Does Not Immediately Flow To The Best Possible Alternative
Related Pages
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- America (1 shared issues)
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- BEAD (1 shared issues)
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- Broadband Equity And Deployment Program (1 shared issues)
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- Bush (1 shared issues)
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- California (1 shared issues)
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- Christianity (1 shared issues)
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- Cleveland (1 shared issues)
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- Congress (1 shared issues)
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- Gavin Newsom (1 shared issues)
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- Japan (1 shared issues)
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- London (1 shared issues)
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- Maine (1 shared issues)
External Links
Source Context
Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.
Could this be reverse causation - ie New York is very dense because its prices are so high (which incentivizes developers to squeeze the most out of every parcel of land)? Yes, obviously this is part of the effect. But equally obviously, it isn’t the full effect. Stripped of its density, Manhattan is just a little island off the US East Coast. There are plenty of little islands off the US East Coast - Maine alone has dozens - and none of them are as expensive to live in as Manhattan. Manhattan has a few extra natural amenities, like a river and a good harbor. But nobody moves to Manhattan for the harbor. They moving there because they want to be in a big city - with friends, jobs, museums, and nightlife. This induced demand effect is so strong that it overwhelms the fact that Manhattan has millions more houses than the empty North Dakota plain (or lower-tier cities like Des Moines or Cleveland). So empirically, as you move along the density spectrum from the empty North Dakota plain to Manhattan, housing prices go up.
I am happy to “concede” that if you face a choice between saving a stranger and saving your brother, save your brother! Or your cousin, or your great-uncle, or your seven-times-great-grand-nephew-twice-removed. I’ll “concede” all of this, immediately, because it’s all fake; none of your relatives were ever in any danger. The only point of this whole style of philosophical discussion is so that you can sound wise as you say “Ah, but is not saving your brother more important than saving a complete stranger?” then sentence five million strangers to death for basically no benefit while your brother continues to be a successful real estate agent in Des Moines.