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The Crisis of Suburbia
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by mtippett | July 18, 2008 at 07:15 am
850 views | 19 Recommendations | 4 comments
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Noted economist Nouriel Roubini paints a frightening picture of the future of North American life. Roubini is one of the few people who anticipated the current US financial crisis and should be taken very seriously.
A whole genre of films - such as American Beauty and Twin Peaks just to cite two cult classics – have unveiled the moral ambiguities – and at times the darkness – that lurk behind the bucolic and idyllic façade of American Suburbia. The pretty and prototypical image of such suburbian lifestyle is the seven-bedroom and four-bathroom MacMansion with a driveway where three gas-guzzling SUVs are parked (one for dad, one for mom and one for the kids) and a sprawling green lawn that is perfectly manicured with sprinklers spewing hundreds of gallons of water a day.
Thanks to the worst housing recession since the Great Depression, sky-high gasoline and energy prices and rising water shortages from global warming this suburbian American dream way of life is turning into an economic and financial nightmare. Let us count the ways of this nightmare…
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (4)
at 13:11 on July 18th, 2008
The suburb I grew up in was definitely in crisis. We had a rash of suicides over the span of just a few years. One of the biggest problems, I think, was that no one talked about anything. On the surface it was all sunshine and Baptist churches, but it obviously wasn't once you dug a little deeper.
at 13:39 on July 18th, 2008
mtippett, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 20:24 on August 13th, 2008
mtippett, I like this story. It's good stuff.
Keeping up with the Jones is all that matters! The suburbia dream was to be well off, with all the luxuries of the American dream with a touch of the nostalgic Village dream or fairy tale, yet without the Village dirt and smell of Cows and Pigs, only the good part was supposed to be their, Car, BBQ and lots of Money and luxuries, very superficial and empty, spiritually as well as socially! A the American dream proved to be a financial as well as ecological and social disaster! Worth part is that enough people around the World have tried to imitate it and find out now that the Old community was a much better fit and worked a lot better as well. Once destroyed the old is very hard if not even next to impossible to re-establish!
at 17:02 on August 14th, 2008
Well-spotted story, well added & commented.
What goes somewhat unnoticed is that unlike the recessions of the 70's and 80's, the recession that roles out world-wide right now will change the way we live, change our society, potentially change our economics.
Although a bit frighting at times, these are also exciting times to live in!