Unless there is some sort of cultural revolution, most people, particularly families, are likely to continue migrating to places where they can acquire a spot of land and a little privacy. And despite the much ballyhooed "return to the city" by aging boomers, most experts suggest that most are either staying in the suburbs or moving to towns farther out in the hinterland. At least 30% of Americans, according to surveys by the National Association of Realtors and the Fannie Mae Foundation, express the desire to move to the country or a small environment, far more than live there now."
Wall Street Journal, 17 October 2006
What I find depressing in the LBO discussion is that the radicals have turned their faces against working class aspirations, leaving right-wingers like Joel Kotkin to champion their ambitions for self-betterment. No wonder suburbanites vote Republican, if they have to put up with the blanket condemnation of their lifestyles from radicals here.
The argument that these aspirations are unsustainable seems too conservative to me. After all, the resource that matters is human effort, and that is being bent to making homes where people want them, as opposed to where 'smart growth' says they should live.