Thank Government For Something: United States Geological Survey

A month or two ago I got a book series on The Old West, and I’ve been reading parts from The Alaskans. For the most part, this history of the settlement and exploration of Alaska highlights the hard-working individualist spirit of nineteenth-century Americans. But when the coast dwellers attempt to explore the interior with their limited resources, they come across many obstacles, and progress is slow – until the federal government shows up:

The Geological Survey… immediately began outperforming the other services by a wide margin. In 1898 alone the Survey sent four parties to Alaska on major explorations…. made detailed maps of 2,000 square miles of terrain… geologist Alfred Brooks, whose party covered 600 miles in 66 days. A third party swept in a 1,300 mile-arc up the Susitna River…

This is a great example of one of the few things that government can do very well: use its resources to gather information that becomes a public good, allowing private individuals to make better decisions about where to live or start businesses. The United States Geological Survey was formed in 1879 to explore the new lands the United States had acquired, building maps and recording the natural resources that lay within.

Now there’s not much exploring to do today, and like any good government agency, the USGS has managed to survive. But they’re still gathering helpful public information about the planet we live on. I believe their earthquake center website alone is worth their 1-billion-or-so-dollar budget. In addition to the publicly available historical records, the site provides constantly updated reports of recent earthquakes around the world and especially in the United States, and you can even sign up for a customized service that emails you whenever an earthquake of a certain magnitude is recorded in a certain area. The USGS is also apparently involved with volcanoes and magnetic fields and other scientific endeavors.

I’m sure there is waste, inefficiency, and corruption within the agency. I’m sure libertarian purists would point to successful private explorations that were faster and cheaper, or argue that an earthquake network would have emerged some other way. But I think it’s pretty reasonable to say that the United States Geological Survey has been a very helpful government agency over the decades and continues to be useful today.