Every culture seems to mythologize a key part of its history and it becomes core to its culture and identity. For the US, its a combination of the American Revo

Every culture seems to mythologize a key part of its history and it becomes core to its culture and identity. For the US, its a combination of the American Revolution but, but importantly (IMHO), the Wild West and homesteading by which the US colonized West. It anti-establishment. The American Revolution spirit is part of that mythology. The article mentions this with the "rugged individualist" but doesn't really capture how pervasive that is. So many (most?) Americans want a "homestead". It's why it's illegal to build anything but single-family homes ("SFHs") in the vast majority of the country. The automobile was about the worst thing to happen here because it enabled this suburban expansion. Mixed-use and higher density living fell by the wayside. People live in their SFH bubbles. The car allows you to travel in a bubble, ignorant of, oblivious to and disconnected from the world around you. Living in a city forces you to deal with people in a way most Americans don't have to and don't want to. That interaction leads to empathy and that lack of empathy is such a huge problem today. While I'm a big fan of remote work wherever possible, I think it'll actually make this worse because a bunch of people who are forced to deal with other people will be able to move to 15 acres in the middle of Tennessee and never have to deal with anyone outside of their family ever again. We have no so-called "third places" in this environment. Society is utterly car dependent, which is particularly bad for the elderly, poor, disabled and children as being unable to drive is severely limiting. If that wasn't bad enough, we're making this worse by making housing a commodity. Successive governments seek to make sure housing prices only go up to the point where increasingly more people simply cannot afford a roof over their heads. Thus begins a cycle of living in their cars before finally losing their cars and becoming truly homeless. It is unbelievably shortsighted and cruel.