The American suburbs are a giant Ponzi scheme
What do you guys think of this article? Agree? Disagree?
What do you guys think of this article? Agree? Disagree?
The American suburbs are a giant Ponzi scheme
What do you guys think of this article? Agree? Disagree?
I woulda thought that was obvious after 2008...?
It can take people a while to catch on.
This is actually bringing up some interesting facts regarding the cost of suburbia. Car-centric development is very expensive and the costs are hidden. Most people don't realize this though.
I wouldn’t live any place but a City. The bigger the better.
...endless, ant-like conformity now affordable... new homes to be as interchangeable as their inhabitantsIt can take people a while to catch on.
This is actually bringing up some interesting facts regarding the cost of suburbia. Car-centric development is very expensive and the costs are hidden. Most people don't realize this though.
Ahh, Bernie Madoff! The exception to prove the rule that the more you steal the more likely you are to get away with itBy definition suburbia is not one.
Bernie Madoff, who died in prison yesterday, ran a $65 billion Ponzi Scheme. He did not invest/grow the money given him by investors. He used the money from new investors to pay a return to existing investors. His fraud fell apart during the 2008 crash. His own children turned him in.
Autos + superhighways created urban & suburban sprawl. As long as the demand continues suburban sprawl will continue.
A major factor in this continued growth is that most of the Boomer, GenX and Millennial cohorts grew up in suburbia, expect and want that lifestyle and are raising their kids (Gen Y & Z) there who will want the same when they grow up.
Example. We grew up in the exurbs where houses ended and farm fields began. One of my sisters married a city boy. After a decade she divorced him and moved to the burbs. She never felt comfortable or safe in the city. He did. The irony is that he had to commute all the way out to an exurb to work and she bought a house in the same burb!
Another factor is the high cost of living in some city centers. Suburbia is often the only choice economically.
...endless, ant-like conformity
By definition suburbia is not one.
There is a reasonable definition by which it is.
The investment gains value so long as the demand remains and government money supply policy remains.
The money supply is a false market. Well, until it isn't and then the stack of cards collapses, rather like a ponzi scheme.
Mortgages both deliver money supply off the back of citizens and tie them to conformity.
By this definition the entire world economy is a Ponzi scheme.
By definition suburbia is not one.
Bernie Madoff, who died in prison yesterday, ran a $65 billion Ponzi Scheme. He did not invest/grow the money given him by investors. He used the money from new investors to pay a return to existing investors. His fraud fell apart during the 2008 crash. His own children turned him in.
Autos + superhighways created urban & suburban sprawl. As long as the demand continues suburban sprawl will continue.
A major factor in this continued growth is that most of the Boomer, GenX and Millennial cohorts grew up in suburbia, expect and want that lifestyle and are raising their kids (Gen Y & Z) there who will want the same when they grow up.
Example. We grew up in the exurbs where houses ended and farm fields began. One of my sisters married a city boy. After a decade she divorced him and moved to the burbs. She never felt comfortable or safe in the city. He did. The irony is that he had to commute all the way out to an exurb to work and she bought a house in the same burb!
Another factor is the high cost of living in some city centers. Suburbia is often the only choice economically.
Suburban living is scandalously self-indulgent. Much better for the environment to live in relatively high-density cities. And for the human spirit — well, lots of people (e.g., Jane Jacobs) think that humans, on the whole, actually thrive on a much higher level of population density that we see in the suburbs (but of course they're speaking of cities of real neighbourhoods).
But is it a Ponzi scheme? Isn't a Ponzi scheme something that, among other things, is sure to ultimately fail? And I'm just not sure that the suburbs, as they are now, would fail if we stopped extending them. We would have a lot of debt to pay, perhaps in cascading quantities — but we pay a lot of debt. So what would change? Where is the near-certain looming collapse?
One problem with the article is that, though it reads well (imo, anyway), it has very little in the way of evidence or justification, especially projected costs under a range of scenarios.
I find I'm scratching my head and saying, "Yeah, this is sorta interesting — but what the hell can I say about its actual merit?"
EDIT: On reflection, maybe I'm just using the term 'Ponzi scheme' too literally. It did have real uses in walking the reader through the argument of the article.
Suburban living is scandalously self-indulgent. Much better for the environment to live in relatively high-density cities. And for the human spirit — well, lots of people (e.g., Jane Jacobs) think that humans, on the whole, actually thrive on a much higher level of population density that we see in the suburbs (but of course they're speaking of cities of real neighbourhoods).
By this definition the entire world economy is a Ponzi scheme.