Through plain good luck I got a big headstart on Chris Arnade's work. I'm friends with his niece from Uni. She showed me the photos he was taking before I think he'd figured out why he was taking photos. And she was interested, by proxy, in post-industrial Britain.

I like his work. I think it's important. What's always struck me in it is how many of the really hard-to-solve problems in the USA are much easier to solve in the UK. And how we've tried quote a lot of the proposed fixes, with varying degrees of success.

It's one big reason why I try not to read much US economics stuff. And why I try to maintain some distance from the London think tank world. Because I think we learn far too much from the USA, and the USA learns far too little from the UK, and even more too little from Europe.

Here's a good thread of people (mostly unfairly) shouting at Chris. I think he's very patient in his replies. It's a good thing to learn from. https://twitter.com/Chris_arnade/status/1197868680555704323?s=19

But probably not much for the UK to learn from. We have almost no abandoned places. Those that come closest as probably urban, either cities or close to cities, they have universities and public hospitals and train lines and bus services. They're cheap, but not abandoned.