A huge experiment
“We didn’t try [the suburban experiment] out for a couple of generations in one part of the country to see how it would work.
We just did it. Everywhere. All at once.”
Tomorrow we release the third video in our Curbside Chat series, The Illusion of Wealth. Thursday we are going to follow that up with part four, Productive Growth. These two videos expand on the powerful narrative we've developed through the Curbside Chat, a story that starts with an important insight:
Auto orientated development is a huge experiment.
The American development pattern seems normal to us today – for most of us, it is all we have ever known – but it is critical to understand that, in the course of human history, the auto-oriented model of growth is one of the greatest social, cultural and financial experiments ever attempted. The knowledge we apply daily in this experiment wasn’t developed by trial and error over the slow grind of centuries. It was advanced in academia and within government meeting rooms, initially based largely on the theories of European intellectuals.
We didn’t try it out for a couple of generations in one part of the country to see how it would work. We just did it. Everywhere. All at once.
This message formed the backbone of an explosive piece we wrote earlier this year for the American Conservative. It's also an opening chapter in our rewrite of the Curbside Chat companion booklet. Understanding that the places we've built represent a radical departure from thousands of years of accumulated wisdom-- America's Suburban Experiment, as we call it -- frees one to think critically about the decisions we've collectively made, and continue to make, about growth, development and prosperity.
In anticipation of tomorrow's big video release (members check your inbox for an early sneak peak), here's a look at part two of the series: Auto-oriented development is a huge experiment. We need to raise an additional $4,500 so we can finish videos five and six in this series. If you have the means, please consider helping us out on this project.