Works in Progress
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@WorksInProgMag
Works in Progress is a magazine of new and underrated ideas to improve the world. Subscribe to our new print edition now. We are proud to be part of @Stripe.
The Japanese railway privatization of 1987 stands as one of the most devastating defeats ever dealt to statist transportation mythology. The government split the bloated Japan National Railways into seven regional companies, sold them off, and watched private ownership transform a bankruptcy-bound disaster into the world's most efficient rail system. JNR hemorrhaged money for decades before privatization. By 1987, the state railway carried debt equivalent to $200 billion in today's money while delivering mediocre service plagued by strikes and inefficiency. Politicians treated it as a jobs program rather than a transportation service. The predictable result: chronic losses, deteriorating infrastructure, and customer service that reflected government monopoly arrogance. Private ownership changed everything overnight. The new JR companies slashed operating costs by 40% within five years while dramatically improving service quality. JR East alone now generates annual profits exceeding $3 billion. These companies invest billions in cutting-edge technology, maintain punctuality rates above 99%, and operate the world's most advanced high-speed rail networks. They achieved this without a single yen of operational subsidies. The transformation reveals a core dynamic of transportation infrastructure: private companies must satisfy customers to survive, while government monopolies need only satisfy politicians. JR companies diversified into real estate, retail, and hospitality around their stations, creating integrated profit centers that cross-subsidize rail operations. Government railways never innovate this way because bureaucrats face no market pressure to generate returns. Meanwhile, Amtrak burns through $2 billion in annual subsidies while delivering third-world service across most routes, and European state railways require massive taxpayer bailouts every few years to stay solvent.
Europe keeps trying offshore processing for asylum seekers. Britain attempted its Rwanda scheme; Italy is dispatching asylum seekers to Albania; Denmark has passed legislation to process claims abroad. They are trying because of Australia, where small boat crossing are widely thought to have been stopped by offshore processing. But they weren't. worksinprogress.co/issue/how-aust… Australia has used two policies to stop boat migration: offshore processing and naval turnbacks, where asylum seekers are transferred onto purpose-built lifeboats and towed back into Indonesian waters. It was turnbacks *alone* that stopped the boats: • In 2001, during the first wave of boat arrivals, the Australian government introduced both offshore processing and turnbacks. Arrivals fell from 5,516 in 2001 to just one person in 2002. • In 2008, both policies were abolished. Arrivals rose seventeen-fold the following year. • In 2012, the Gillard government reintroduced offshore processing, but without turnbacks. Arrivals did not fall. • In 2013, turnbacks were reintroduced alongside offshore processing and boat migration collapsed. • In 2014, offshore transfers were abandoned entirely, leaving turnbacks to do the work alone. Arrivals have remained at essentially zero ever since. Offshore processing is expensive and politically toxic. It is also unnecessary. Governments that want to reduce boat migration should learn from Australia and focus on turnbacks instead. New in Works in Progress by @AmeliaERWood. worksinprogress.co/issue/how-aust…
I can't believe how much care goes into the visual design for each article in the print edition of @WorksInProgMag. With @_revoluzia_, I wrote on Egg Freezing: the biology of female reproductive aging, how egg freezing works if done early enough & practical steps towards it.
Instant coffee started out as a baked paste of ground coffee, butter and tallow. Unfortunately, the fats went rancid. People have wanted instant coffee for centuries. During the American Civil War, transporting the 12.5 tons of coffee that made up 100,000 soldiers' daily ration was a logistical nightmare. And they still needed to roast, grind, and brew it in the field. Most attempts have had serious drawbacks: - Boiling coffee down to concentrate destroys the flavour. - Dry hot-air dehydration, which is what's used for drying pasta, oxidizes the coffee. - Spray drying, used for dried milk, loses important compounds because molecules in coffee become sticky and clump together at different temperatures. - Freeze drying and flash freezing are expensive and cost several dollars per cup. But we cracked coffee in the end, and it's getting better. New at Works in Progress by @OscarSykes7 and Benjamin Stubbing, the story of how instant coffee became drinkable. worksinprogress.co/issue/a-brief-…
