Affordable Family Formation

[:) Smiley]

Originally posted by DanS
The topology of Washington's public transportation is no less wide. But Washington is a typical American city. The city itself is a wasteland for families. The suburbs have room to grow and are growing quickly. Of course, this growth can't last forever, but it can last for an awful long time.

When the American suburbanite has to compete with the Chinese and the Indian suburbanite for gas, suburban living is going to get very unaffordable.

Currently, American drivers average 8,000 miles of driving per year. The typical exurban dweller will probably be driving twice as much, or 16,000 miles. A two-adult family will be doing 32,000 miles a year, and given average SUV fuel efficiency, 2,000 gallons of gas.

At $2 a gallon, that's $4,000 a year, significant but tolerable. At $6 a gallon, which is what Europeans pay, that's a steep $12,000. We're not considering the other costs of car ownership here either, or the increased cost of other products that need to be trucked in from coastal ports.

Bar some breakthrough in fusion power, the end of that "awful long time" is going to come in our lifetimes.

[Drake Tungsten]

Originally posted by mrmitchell
Drake it's an interesting article. But I've said it once and I'll say it again: The US has too many unique aspects to make a generalization like proposed possible.

You're most likely correct. It's fun to take a look at the issue from a whole new angle though, isn't it?

For #3 Marriage Gap, why does he only take into account statistics involving white women? You can't ignore 20% of the entire population.

Probably because blacks as a group (and hispanics, to a lesser extent) vote overwhelmingly Democrat for reasons other than the ones covered by his hypothesis. One of the unique aspects mentioned above...

[Drake Tungsten]

Put mom within walking distance of six smaller stores that between them meet her needs without necessitating driving, and maybe what mom "needs" changes.

Doubtful. Japanese towns are designed this way, but it hasn't stopped the invasion of one-stop shopping centers.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by DanS
But Washington is a typical American city. The city itself is a wasteland for families. The suburbs have room to grow and are growing quickly. Of course, this growth can't last forever, but it can last for an awful long time.

For a guy who spouts realism -- especially fiscal realism -- you're positively on drugs here. Washington, with its bizarre fiscal and political relationship to the Federal government, is absolutely the least typical American city, even less so than New York. Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Portland, Cleveland, Houston, even San Francisco -- these are typical American cities, different as they are from each other. But DC, with the structural barriers it has to controlling its land, taxing its industry, and sending representatives to Congress, is a city like no other.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


If you live in an area where your housing prices are higher, you likely don't have many non-English speaking immigrants in your schools .

This is a place I think the analysis breaks down. The places with the highest housing prices are usually pretty 'white'. Perhaps immigration raises housing prices through a national supply shortage, but that doesn't work for me either.

Yea, lord knows that Los Angeles and New York have hardly any immigrants.