http://nextstl.com/north-st-louis/the-pruitt-igoe-myth-an-urban-history
Some Misesean economics student should do a thesis on this, explaining in detail how Mises’s calculation problem applies. The website’s and video’s analysis is much more substantial than what I’ve found on Wikipedia or other sites but it still fails to grasp the inherent problems with centrally-planned rents and real estate and the inevitability of failure.
What is particularly poignant about Pruitt-Igoe is the rapidity of its failure - it was demolished less than two decades after being built. The architecture lays bare the ugliness and inhumanity of supposedly “compassionate” central-planning and social engineering initiatives. The buildings looked like a prison complex when they were brand-new. Shortly thereafter, they looked like abandoned factories filled with refuse and filth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-cfjqh1sSY
Clayton -