Keep Manhattan,
just give me that countryside.
Posted on 07/29/2013 11:51:33 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
(Newser) – Detroit spent the last decade spiraling into bankruptcy, while Atlanta spent it growing like mad. But the two cities have something in common: "Both are places where the American dream seems to be dying," writes Paul Krugman at the New York Times. Social mobility is low in both cities—meaning the poor are staying poor. Why? Well, a new study suggests that it might be because they're just too spread out. "Sprawl may be killing Horatio Alger."
The study found that social mobility was correlated with how far apart various classes lived from each other. "In Atlanta, poor and rich neighborhoods are far apart because, basically, everything is far apart; Atlanta is the Sultan of Sprawl," Krugman writes. "Disadvantaged workers often find themselves stranded; there may be jobs available somewhere, but they literally can't get there." We need to build smarter, more compact population centers that let families get by without multiple cars. Click for Krugman's full column.
It is not the suburbs that the social engineers are trying to empty, it is the rural areas, like where I live.
Cities are cold and unsafe, even the cities that have been gentrified. I remember walking down the sidewalk in downtown Seattle, when my husband grabbed me by the arm and pulled me onto the curb because they were doing a needle exchange right on the sidewalk in the busy downtown shopping area. I have had homeless guys sit down with me at Starbucks and am constantly harangued by the homeless for money every time I go to Seattle. I’ve seen a purse snatcher run off with a woman’s purse. I’ve seen scam artists promising huge returns on investments if they will only lend them money for a short while and I often see the wide-eyed stare of the PETA freaks trying to solicit support from passers-by. Who needs it? I prefer my solitude.
In LA, I had to step over a dead man on the sidewalk, slumped against a doorstop, with flies going in and out of his mouth. People just walked around him. I went in search of police officer, and when I came back, I had a parking ticket and the guy was still there. That is soulless.
Cities are no place for raising a family.
Krugmans article is taken to an extreme in the plot of the movie (starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster) “Elysium”
Which just happens to be hitting theaters next week.
Coincidence? C’mon, show of hands ... who thinks Krugman’s article is just coincidentially timed to match the release of the movie?
What are the economic factors that enable a house in Manhattan to cost so much more than your house in the burbs? You argue that no rational person should choose to live in the city, but clearly rational people are demanding homes there, to the tune of creating that great a price differential. Why?
Obviously restricted supply and high demand drives the price up. The demand is driven in large part by emotion though, vanity in particular. People that live in Manhattan are quite proud of themselves, and let everyone know they can walk to the shows. An unfortunate side effect of vanity is envy, and it’s envy that drives leftism. At its most basic, leftism is size envy. Seeing so much surrounding wealth all day causes a desire to communalize others property. Out in the country, if a neighbor builds a large new horse barn, it’s mostly out of sight and out of mind. Maximum happiness occurs on average about half way between high and low population density, although the preference varies by age and sex.
Keep Manhattan,
just give me that countryside.
The only people city dwellers are telling of their proximity to musical theatre are suburbanites like you who wish there was more to do out where they live.
You continue to discount any reason that someone might rationally choose to live in a city, or that someone can enjoy a quality of life and a lifestyle there without it being about showing off.
And are you seriously arguing that conspicuous consumption leads to unrest and revolution?
Since Cain murdered Able, vanity leads to envy which leads to hate, theft, looting, riots, murder, war, and voting Democrat. For some reason city dwellers develop a self-esteem problem: way too much of it. Cities employ the vast majority of head shrinkers. In general the rise of leftism in any area coincides with the rise in population density.
So the best idea is to legalize millions of uneducated unskilled foreign nations to move in to those cities too.
Isn't that what they did in South Africa and in Europe? But in Europe the transported are getting restless.
What I didn’t mention was that they (the leftist social engineers) have an ulterior motive for wanting the poor out of the inner cities. They want their houses for gentrified neighborhoods. They think that retiring baby boomers and childless young couples will flock to the newly gentrified inner cities.
I wonder how the urban dwellers will take to being shipped off to “townships”. But yuppies will love the revitalized inner cities anyway those other people don’t appreciate fine arts and can’t afford good dining. I think the Boomers will hit the road if they can.
Don't laugh. That is the precise argument that's been pushed by the last several mayors of Detroit. All of its problems can be placed at the fast-moving feet of fleeing citizens (it's mostly "black flight" now, BTW).
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