ABSTRACT
The great suburban build-out is over. It was wonderful for business in the short term, and a disaster for our civilisation when the short term expired. We shall have to live with these consequences for a long time. The chief consequence is that the living arrangements most Americans think of as “normal” is bankrupting us both personally and at every level of government. This is the true meaning of the word deficit, which has resounded so hollowly the past ten years as to have lost its power to distress us. Now that we have built the sprawling system of far-flung houses, offices, and discount marts connected by freeways, we can’t afford to live in it. We also failed to anticipate the costs of the social problems we created in letting our towns and cities go to hell.
