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> Most of suburban America wasn't built yet when you were born. That doesn't sound right. They said that the US population has grown by almost 100 million sin
by tzs 1y ago
> Most of suburban America wasn't built yet when you were born.
That doesn't sound right.
They said that the US population has grown by almost 100 million since they were born. That would put their birth year around 1989.
Some searching suggests that in 1989 about 50% of the population lived in suburban areas. That would have been about 120 million people.
It is still about 50% which is 170 million people today. That suggests that around 70% of the suburbs were already built when they were born.
- ajross 1y ago> That doesn't sound right. Which is usually how these arguments go. Are there more or fewer homeless people in the US than in 1982? There are fewer. Is the number of people per household larger or smaller than in 1982? It is smaller. Is the average home larger or smaller than in 1982? It is larger (very significantly so). Do the math. We're building housing faster than population growth. QED. And, overwhelmingly, we're building that housing in suburban sprawl, because that's where it's cheap to build housing. Now, there are many arguments about whether this is good or bad or whether policies could be better or worse. And I think you'd find you agree with me on more than you don't. But statements like the above that seem to take as a prior that "massive immigration" (sigh, again) is somehow creating an infrastructure crises are simply wrong. Period. Start with correct arguments, then tune. Don't yell about one because your priors tell you it "doesn't sound right".