Charles Marohn

The growth Ponzi scheme

Engineer, president of Smart Towns, Jun 16, 11.

The underpinnings of the current financial crisis lie in a living arrangement—the American pattern of development—that does not financially support itself. The great experiment of suburbanization that America embarked on following World War II has no precedent in human history. As it enters its third generation, the flawed assumptions that were overlooked are now coming back to bite us in a cruel way. Like any Ponzi scheme, there is only one way this ends.

In the great American experiment of suburbanization following World War II, we redirected our county’s extensive resources into a living arrangement unseen at any point in human history. We abandoned thousands of years of history, knowledge and tradition in building cities and towns in order to try this new — and completely untested — approach.

In a way, this was an odd thing for such a pragmatic generation, having been conditioned on financial depression, scarcity and war, to undertake. I don’t think they ever saw it that way, however. The Great Depression had cut short efforts to improve the industrial city. With the automobile offering the promise of mobility for all, it was seemingly within our grasp for each American family to one day live the life of European royalty, complete with a country estate outfitted with all the modern trappings. America’s ascendancy and absolutely financial domination worldwide made this dream appear possible. We likely never stopped to think it through.

What is more puzzling—at least to those that think about it — is how there has been so little questioning of the logic behind this arrangement. American suburbanization is a grand experiment, but one where the hypothesis—suburban development provides prosperity — is never really tested. It is basically a law, not a theory, that has crept into our ethos. It is only the collapse of the housing market, along with the much less talked about but even more consequential collapse of the commercial real-estate market, that has allowed critics of suburbanization to avoid the label “kook”.

Suburban development has become equated with the American dream. It’s continual propagation is nearly unquestioned. Even those who think we are in a deep financial hole that will take years to correct ultimately envision “recovery” to include a return to building more and more of this same pattern. But is that even possible?

Full Story: The Growth Ponzi Scheme, Part I
Source: New Urban Network, June 13, 2011

The Growth Ponzi Scheme, Part II
The Growth Ponzi Scheme, Part III

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