Wonders of Big Government: Today, The Peoples House, Bucharest

Among the landmarks of the city of Bucharest, The Peoples House stands out. Really, it does. It is huge. And a bit of an eye sore. One of those things that the locals say when asked so what the hell is there to visit here? It is one of the largest buildings in the world, by volume and by pointless waste of resources.

Let us read from the Book of Wikipedia for the specifics:

„it is the largest administrative building in the world[1] with a height of 84 meters (276 ft), an area of 365,000 square meters (3,930,000 sq ft) and a volume of 2,550,000 cubic meters (90,000,000 cu ft). In terms of weight, the Palace of the Parliament is the heaviest building in the world, weighing in at around 4,098,500,000 kilograms (9.0356×109 lb)”.

Don’t know about you dear reader, but I am in awe. Let us continue, shall we?

“Between 20,000 and 100,000 people worked on the site, sometimes operating in three shifts. Thousands of people died at the People's House, some mention a figure of 3,000 people.”

Because nothing makes a building last like a bit of the old human sacrifice. People died building the Wall of China, and now it stands throughout the years, which this thing will do, when the rest of Bucharest is rubble. It would make a fantastic base for the most powerful tribe of cannibals roaming the post-apocalyptic wasteland, to be fair.

The People's House was parts a project of Ceaușescu's begun in 1978 to make Bucharest sort of a replica of Pyongyang of North Korean fame. From Little Paris to little Pyongyang... If that is not progress, I don’t know what is. Back in the fabled days of the 1970, Romania was not what the unbiased observer would call a rich country, if said observer insisted on the proper use of the English language. There were, by a conservative estimate, about a million better things to spend money on than megalomania and delusions of grandeur, somewhat like so many big cathedrals build in medieval times when most people lived in abject poverty.

But alas, government loves few things as much as delusions of grandeur. And here we are, a massive pile of marble, inefficient in both layout and energy consumption, used to house the Parliament in of Romania, a wretched hive of scum and villainy to put Mos Eisley to shame.

To make room for this monstrosity, a decent neighbourhood was levelled – no one could do eminent domain like eastern European commies- with tree lined streets and decent houses. There was a bit to spruce up after all the communism, not unlike many other places, but it was serviceable. It was torn down to make room for the Big House and the rest remained a big empty lot, probably to provide clear lines of fire in case the people got uppity.

The above is a picture from the neighborhood BPH - Before People's House. The source of pic and more like it here: http://danperry.livejournal.com/91821.html

The reason I write this little post, besides giving a bit of info on my home city, is that associated with the People’s House is one of the most idiotic critiques of libertarianism I have had the pleasure of hearing. It is the sort of stuff the term derp was coined for. It went a little bit like this: „With a libertarian government, could Romania have built Casa Poporului (to use the Romanian name) when it did?”. It got rather on the funny side, when a sparkle of of almost self-awareness entered the mind of the arguer. He literally said „I don’t mean to debate the use or effectiveness of building it, but without big government you could simply not tackle such a huge project.”

So, in fact, with a truly libertarian government could you evict hundreds of families, wreck homes, and spend resources you cannot afford to waste in order to realize an insane megalomaniac’s wet dream marble and gilded chandeliers, and not caring about need or efficiency. Well, you got me, probably no. The fact that it is a bad thing boggles the mind.

Now, I sprinkled through the article a bit Chekhov's sentences. I mentioned cathedrals and the big empty lot. Now, whatever is Romania building now on that big empty lot, you my ask? The more perspicacious of my readers can figure it out. A big, gaudy and equally pointless cathedral. The Peoples Redemption Cathedral, to call it by its name. Because Romania already has the best of everything in the world and what is missing is a cathedral.

Now in these savage capitalist times, the Orthodox Church claimed it needed no government money. A few tens of millions of euros later, those claims ring hollow. No money from the government? We meant plenty money from the government. I mean, should not the people in power give a thought to all those elderly voters who listen to the priests, and the simple truth that come election time the priests speak the right names? Of course they do.

So, sadly, here we are. Next, I assume, is a pyramid of sorts. Or maybe an obelisk. Bucharest could have the largest solid gold obelisk in the world. I hope mayor Firea is not reading this post.