It's the Community, stupid!

Saturday afternoon in Dublin when I was there this May
Saturday afternoon in an American suburb
Click HERE for a brilliant article Andy found. It lays out our American problem more succinctly and personally than any I've recently read.

"What's the cost for living our American way? It's not just the thousands of dollars for the second car, insurance and gas. We also have to support a lake of concrete around us - and gas, electric and sewer lines to stretch out past the near-vacant belts beyond the older suburbs. Property taxes in Almería on our condo are one-twelfth our taxes in Milwaukee, even though the value of the two homes is roughly the same.

One-twelfth. Oh, and they throw in free health insurance."

Really, read the whole thing HERE. I, of course, feel proud of the section about New York, but the thing is, it wouldn't be THAT hard to turn the beat around . . . look, Europe was destroyed after WWII, and it's really not about infrastructure -- it's about mindset. Buy local, go out, buy often, repair (don't replace), and demand service for loyalty. The infrastructure is crumbling anyway, and it's up to us to replace it with improvements.