Probably very impractical arrangements can only survive when most people have the resources to compensate. In a country with few resources, it never even gets

Probably very impractical arrangements can only survive when most people have the resources to compensate. In a country with few resources, it never even gets off the ground. And if it ever did, that could have been hundreds of years ago, longer than the US has to learn what works. When we are young, we can do many impractical things. But if we make it to being old, its likely we've let a lot of those things go. So too with cities.