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.
If only the peasants would let us put them in 100 story ant farms so they could be more easily controlled...
Government barracks should do it - you’ll have to force the wealthy to live in them at gunpoint, but hey, it’s for the Greater Good.
I'm sure that Mr. Krugman will be the first to volunteer to move some of these "disadvantaged" folks right in next door to him.
Gotta agree that Atlanta is reaallly spread out.
Hardly compares with the NYC or LA metroplexes, though.
Either Section 8 is a good idea, or it's not.
You can't have it both ways Paul, even if you are schizophrenic.
Central planners like to think they have all the answers, yet they always fail.
translation: There is not enough of us piled up like rats in mega-cities to support the subsidies mega-cities cannot survive without.
So, let’s gentrify all the cities and push the poor out into the suburbs. Retake the cities, if you can stand it.
That is the premise of the 1971 novel by Robert Silverberg......only the buildings were a mile high and held millions of people........
I'm pretty sure some of his mansions have plenty of room to house several dozen families right under his roof.
All those people that moved to the townships caused Detroit to fubar itself with bad schools, high costs, bad services, and crime everywhere.
Poor is a CHOICE, Paul. You want to deprive them of their CHOICE, don’t you?
Oh, there’s plenty of American Dream just outside Atlanta. I’m living it.
Krugman gets it all wrong. An executive living in wealthy Lower Merion Township in the Philly burbs has much more in common with a contemporary in Singapore, Frankfurt or Dubai than he does with minimum-wage schmoos living just five miles away from him in West Philly.
bump!
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