What the critics seem to forget is that when these wonderful places were built they were out of reach for most Americans. My grandparents did not have running

What the critics seem to forget is that when these wonderful places were built they were out of reach for most Americans. My grandparents did not have running water or central heating. In the cities most people, especially immigrants, lived in tenements. After WWII there was pent up saving and pent up demand. People bought cracker box houses because they were cheap and way better than what they had been living in. They bought cars, because they were affordable, enabling urban sprawl. As a kid, I lived in a farmhouse in Maine with little heat, no plumbing, no running water and cold as hell. I remember my parents drilling a well, putting in a bathroom and heat. What they and others did wasnt pretty, but in the prosperity of the times we joined the middle class.