★ THE BICENTENNIAL DISPATCH ★

IT WAS KEEPIN’ ON TRUCKIN’.
THEN THEY FIXED IT.

A bicentennial dispatch on far-out fixes that laid an egg — sourced, cited, and heavy, man.

★ The Fix Is In, Good Buddy

Public Health · The Pandemic That RSVP'd No

Nation Vaccinated Against Pandemic That Never Shows; Pandemic Sends No Apology

The fix: Spooked that this was 1918 booking a return engagement, President Ford went on the tube flanked by Salk and Sabin and asked Congress for $135 million to jab 'every man, woman, and child in the United States' before autumn. The drug houses agreed — but only if Uncle Sam ate the lawsuits. Uncle Sam ate the lawsuits.

★★★★★ SevereRead the case →

The Economy · Inflation, Outlawed

President Declares Inflation Illegal; Inflation Keeps Operating Without a License

The fix: On August 15, 1971, in a Sunday-night address that bumped Bonanza, President Nixon froze all wages, prices, and rents for 90 days, slapped a surcharge on imports, and slammed the gold window shut — a grab bag of fixes delivered with the confidence of a man who had not run it past an economist.

★★★★★ SevereRead the case → The Cities · Progress, Bulldozed

City Saves Doomed Neighborhood by Demolishing It, Its Residents, and the Concept of Neighborhoods

The fix: Beginning with the Housing Act of 1949, Washington handed cities the cash and the bulldozers to clear 'substandard' districts and rebuild them modern: high-rise public housing, downtown parking, and expressways driven straight through where families used to live.

★★★★★ SevereRead the case →

What Wasn’t Broken

We start with the thing that was working fine — boring, dependable, doing its job.

The "Fix"

Then the improvement: bold, expensive, announced with confidence. Usually unrequested.

The Result

And the receipts — what it cost, what broke, and the citations to prove it.

IT WAS KEEPIN’ ON TRUCKIN’.THEN THEY FIXED IT.