There's a #6 in there: The Formerly Country suburb. It's the place that used to be a smattering of farms and acreage, inhabited by people who were living there on purpose to be away from the urban sprawl only to find themselves being sucked up in urban sprawl and having to deal with the problems that come with it (NIMBYs, hicklibs, NPR soaked "homesteaders" who gently condescend to the ignorant yokels that know that they're doing).
On the outskirts of Americana live the "Countryside sububurbians" Farmland with no industry, home sites with acreage, close enough to decent towns but far enough away to shoot your guns and drive fast for miles. Easier to stay friendly with the neighbors regardless of their degree of Libtardism. Typically, these are in red states. Quiet nights, open land, residents armed.
You described exactly what has happened in the rural area we moved from in 2020. It started with "back to the landers" in the 1970s, then brought in the trustifarian children of the wealthy. Then the political landscape shifted from solid red to solid blue. Boutique stores that don't seem to make money but survive because they are supported by the trust funds and are more a symbol of "I am better than you". Now the property taxes have blown up into the ozone and the long time locals are moving further away if they can.
Let’s drop the facade—this is economic and cultural engineering, and the middle class is the casualty. When you offshore industry, flood labor markets, inflate housing, and expand dependency, you don’t just “evolve” suburbs—you fracture them. The stable, self-sufficient American family becomes an endangered species, squeezed between decline and unaffordable “safety.” That’s not a bug, it’s the outcome. Because a strong middle class is independent, and independence is hard to control. What you’re left with is a two-tier system: elites insulated at the top, instability below. And the middle? It’s being erased in real time while everyone pretends it’s just the market at work.
I am one of those legal immigrants you don't like, and in general, I agree with you. However, I like to add a few annotations on the lesser points.
(1) Around the year 2000, the US EE/CS were clearly overpaid when compared to engineers living and working in Asia. American engineers (including the legal immigrants) were more capable, but Asian engineers were paid at about 10% of the US engineering. By the year 2015 or so, the pay ratio between the US and (China, India) had dropped to around 3:1. But the living expense ratio was probably also 3:1 by then.
(2) I graduated from graduate school in 1991. IMHO, the "real" US economy had been going downhill since 1987, and off the cliff after the stock market peak in early 2000. Manufacturing and R&D hollow-out is not the fault of legal immigrants. Legal immigrants are subject to the same hollowing out and have even more difficulties in finding comparable jobs.
(3) There are at least four types of legal immigrants (3.1) real refugees, (3.2) people who earn PR by professional skills, (3.3) immigrants as relatives of (3.2), and (3.4) investment immigration, especially capital flights from all around the world. I think type (3.2) provides mostly a positive contribution to the US economy. Types (3.1) and (3.3) are mostly a drag as it is difficult for most foreigners to cross the cultural gaps. This is true all over the world. (3.4) is mostly a source of social corruption.
(4) Legal immigration is not a problem as long as these people come in with a worthy skill. Even illegal immigration is not that much of a problem as long as there is no voter and social welfare fraud. The US tax systems (income tax brackets, tariff loopholes, corporate tax structure, preferential treatment to capital, etc.) and the blind pursuit of profits (what I call naked capitalism) are the most critical culprits.
"Manufacturing and R&D hollow-out is not the fault of legal immigrants."
I would agree with you except that every where that "legal" immigrants worm their way into hiring positions, they only hire foreigners after that. The "legal" immigrants are not hapless victims along with Americans, they are a part of the problem because of their discriminatory hiring practices.
"Legal immigration is not a problem as long as these people come in with a worthy skill."
That's a laugh. The US job market cannot absorb the world's surplus. If you truly have an engineering degree you ought to be able to do simple math.
In my personal observation, immigrant managers tend to hire more whites lest they be ridiculed for ethnic hiring. White managers, on the other hand, tend to hire a few minorities due to HR policies. The exception is probably Indian managers. In particular, Intel and Qualcomm have many examples of Indian managers hiring mostly Indian engineers.
Legal immigrants DO take away some high-paying jobs in the US. I don't see anyone who can argue about that. At the same time, I spent 7 years in US graduate schools to see that Americans born in the US are not very interested in engineering. For those who graduate from engineering schools, however, they are as good as or better than their counterparts in Asia, and frequently as good as Asian students who have graduate degrees.
The US job market certainly cannot and should not absorb the world's surplus. If the US does import population, the policies ought to be picky. And perhaps very picky if you like. However, the capitalists in charge in the US do not think along that line.
I can't argue with your final paragraph. Perhaps the reason you don't see as many US citizens in engineering is because salaries have not kept pace, because they've been driven down by visa holders.
I told my Son, flat out, don't go into EE or CS because you'll be replaced by a visa holder and won't be able to finish out your career.
If policy makers want Americans in Engineering, then they need to leave the incentives in place for people to enter engineering. Importing endless foreigners has destroyed those incentives.
Apparently things are at the point now, where new grads can't even get jobs.
That is certainly true right now. If I had children, I would probably tell them NOT to go into EECS, too, but for various other reasons. At least for a while, but probably for the long term, R&D in EECS is in a capital-intensive rather than talent-intensive environment. The time for an electronics hobbyist to carve out a small business for a living has long gone and will not come back.
If the US as a society wants to protect the future supply of domestic-produced engineers, then there is no doubt that (1) No IT or R&D out-sourcing to other countries (not just Asia, but also East Europe, South America, and the Middle East). (2) Limit foreign students to STEM. especially those with military associations, and equal quota from each country, say, no single country can keep a total of more than 20 thousand engineering students in the US at any given time. (3) Limit the number of H-1. (4) increase scholarship to native STEM students, and more so for advanced degree programs, as the problems are not limited to EECS or undergraduate programs.
On the other hand, the capitalists are similar to the communists in that they treat people like another kind of material or objects. If they can import goods at will, then there is no preventing them from importing humans, resources, or garbage. Therefore, at the same time as protecting the domestic supply of STEM talents, it is equally important to establish a tariff barrier. If engineering R&D and product design can be done overseas (as of now), then there is little point in training engineers at home. For example, Apple computers are still mostly designed inside the US, but most Windows laptops are partially designed overseas, as do most of the desktop motherboards. Almost all peripheral cards are designed overseas. Most subassemblies are built in Asia. If we don't move the R&D as well as manufacturing back, there is no point in keeping the domestic talent supply chain. Tariff barrier is a must for the US for at least one generation until a domestic balance is reached.
I recently moved to one of these at-risk Americana suburbs and while many of my city friends are excited about me reaching the milestone of owning a home, I can detect a bit of confusion at me moving to somewhere "boring". There's even a bit of pity/mockery from some of them. They can make fun all they want, but they're the ones dealing with stolen packages, homeless people living within eyesight, and never knowing their neighbors. When I lived in that city, a woman yelled at my husband for returning her dropped wallet to her. That's the average interaction you get with your neighbors in those places.
We moved to a totally different part of the country and instantly the guy across the street offered to help us shovel out from the blizzard, and the people next door (a very nice retired couple) insisted that we ask them if we ever need any tools or help with anything. Families walk by and wave. Kids are actually playing outside. I can walk my dog and not worry about cars or psychotic cyclists mowing us down. It rules. I cannot for a second imagine moving back to a city.
No, but the retired woman next door loves to bake and have you over for a bit of strudel and a nice cup of tea. She doesn't even expect any tips in return, only some friendly conversation about the children, grandchildren, and how the garden is growing...
Deport and incarcerate not only illegals, but those who enable them. When a police department enforces by political affiliation rather than by law, arrest, charge, and replace them. When judges render decisions for political rather than constitutional reasons, impeach and remove them. Without remedial action all the bleating about what's wrong will do nothing except add to the noise.
I live in an "Americana" suburb that's sadly, slowly drifting towards a "Brooklyn burb". Our city is currently a safe, quiet community with a strong downtown core that includes many successful locally-owned businesses, etc. The overwhelming majority of the housing stock has traditionally been owner-occupied single family homes.
But over the past 25 years we've seen the local city politics shift from solidly red, to purple, and now, blue. Corporations rush to purchase any homes that come on the market, and rent them out to short/intermediate-term tenants. The newly-elected city council is pushing hard to change zoning laws to permit more condos, townhouses, and apartments to encourage "diversity" and to allow "everyone to live here". Council is also attempting to change zoning to encourage retail to build outside the downtown core, to the potential detriment of the existing businesses.
Those 'Brooklyn Burbs' are taking over here in the Southern US, as the Yankees move south and bring their Yankee baggage with them to ruin what was a nice town.
Fortunately, most of the Yankees moving south are more conservative than liberal, which is why they left the north. But there are enough northern liberals to ruin it for everyone else.
That's basically what happened to the suburb we used to live in, in WA. In that case though, the density-diversity type stuff was imposed on the state level and likely resulted from the federal level. I could be wrong, but I think Obama administration (or time period) put into place density type requirements for state and local areas to receive federal funds. I don't have time to research what exactly happened but we watched our state and then county impose the exact requirements. If I'm right, this means checking if your state has accepted and imposed these requirements, before deciding to move within the same state.
I live near an historical town (my town borders it). The progressive town council that gets elected in that historical town is pushing for more condos and high rise buildings IN the town square. The town square that still attracts people who come specifically for the history, to walk the battlefields, eat in the family-owned restaurants. And the people who actually run the town are trying to make it more modern. The oldness of the town is what drives the tourism, which is the main income for most businesses! It's mind-boggling!
Northern Virginia suburbs here. I have lived here most of my adult life.
My parents came in 1947 when I father came over to work for a Dutch office in New York, as an accountant. Both of my parents were US citizens by then, my father and his brother became US citizens in 1923, when my grampa and his wife came to the US, New Jersey where all the Dutch people settled, or most of them. Then is was just back and forth. Interestingly, my dad was a POW in WW2 taken up in a razzia in 44 because his family was living in Rotterdam at that time
Northern Virginia has changed. I remember the farms and the cows and horses where what is now Tyson Corner.
I grew up in the Greenbriar development on Hwy. 50. All up and down the highway you could find creeks to stop at and fish (what we'd call rivers down here in Texas).
The area behind our house was undeveloped, so there was room to launch rockets, chase butterflies and generally run around loose in a tiny wilderness.
There is also another trend: People who are living in Cars, Vans, small Travel Trailers, Tiny Homes off grid and on the fringes. They can't afford traditional homes anymore and rents are so high their limited money goes farther in this array of alternative housing. Many are retired old people, many others are young who have no way to get into the traditional housing. People are creative and will find ways. Then, there are the homeless which is not a good situation to be in, particularly in cities.
There are a lot of retired old people living in single-family homes and it always makes me wonder what it was that drove all their children away to live on their own instead of staying in a more traditional multi-generational setting (think of the admittedly idyllic Walton's Mountain from 1970's TV.)
It wasn't only the lure of jobs in the big cities, because even there you'll find families where the kids have left home and moved to a neighborhood in the same city or a nearby suburb within the same commuting distance as the home they grew up in.
The culture really has changed since people left to find careers in other cities far from where they grew up. Even farms became a different life and the number of family farms declined drastically. Also, since WWII most women began working. When they had children they may have stopped to be there for the kids until they were old enough to not need mom at home, so mom would start working again. That is what my mother did. But the other change is that the costs of living and need to have two cars made it harder to live on one income. Most grown children did not expect to ever be living at home again. Most parents, particularly middle class ones had access to pensions, created savings and investments. Would downsize and even move to warmer states when they got old. Now that the wealth bubble is collapsing, more people are seeing the need to live together again. I don't know what percentage are actually doing it, however. My brother sponged off my father for years as an adult. When dad retired he actually moved to American Samoa. Then my brother HAD to put his live together, which he did, and did well.
I guess part of the explanation is that people see it as "sponging" off their parents. We use similar phrases like "failure to launch", all of which suggest that independent living is the hallmark of success -- even if it usually means starting a household all over again from scratch. Multigenerational households aren't as lucrative from the perspective of the merchants who want to sell new stuff, because grandpa and grandma, father and mother, have already acquired most of the furniture, kitchen gear, shop tools, and gardening equipment that a household requires. (Here I'm thinking of the time before cheap IKEA crap and other planned obsolescence.)
Some of the furniture I had in my 1st apartment would have made IKEA crap look elegant. I had a blow up 2 seat couch and chair. If one person sat on one side it would flip over, the chair was a bit more stable. I found a TV on the curb for the trash to pick up. Brought it in it worked except the colors were bizarre, so we played around with it til it was tolerable. Mind you this was 1971. Had 3 room mates. We all scrounged up stuff. Another place was across the street from UW Milwaukee and the owner rented out attic rooms to students and others including a guy - a printer, who had been a Nazi tank driver in the war. 3rd apt we had a couple roommates again on was applying for a job as a tailor and made a suit, vest and two pairs of pants and a tie for the interview. He got the job and soon moved out. He was an inspiration to me. I worked in machine a shop that summer and learned every skill I could.
Good insights! Here in suburban Houston, I live in a community that is Americana trending favela. It might be more favela, but the immigrants are so diverse, one variety can't take over. In our neighborhood, the immigrant families (maybe a little under ~50%) are mostly upscale and generally pretty quiet and easy to get along with. I'm hoping the day doesn't come very soon that it tips full favela.
A deeper dive into a heavily islamicized Dearborn can be examined. It does seem to fit that Third World-ish designation but I have seen Americana spirit from residents. Specifically, Lebanese folk of Christian faith have gone there for a new home and to set up shop, in pursuit of that still desirable American dream. They may have to save the suburb from completely losing its roots.
Dearborns residents were brought in by Ford in the early 1920s and most were Christian/Chaldean families. Some Muslims too but not as many. Seems like the Chaldeans moved to other areas and left it to the Shia. Dearborn is the largest middle eastern population outside their homelands.
Once in a while in the 80s/90s you’d see a burka at a Metropark but now the beach is full of them… it is unbelievable those in power allowed this to happen and that it’s escalated to what we see today in the news. I’m pleased to say that there isn’t black smoke coming from the south yet but my eyes are open!
Here in Middle TN south of Nashville we have a Coptic Community (Egyptian Christians, among the oldest such group on earth) that has purchased an ugly 1950s Church of Christ building. The parking lot overflows several times a week and I believe they've purchased the largish house and property next door. Cars parked on the lawn every Sunday and Holy Day. God love 'em! The 15-yr old mosque is a couple of miles away, so I think these Coptics are keeping an eye on that crowd;-) All of this religious fervor is embarrassing to us Episcopalians!
What is your church membership like? I did a research paper and I believe Episcopalian average age is 68 or something like that? Plenty of funerals, no baptisms....
There are children attending the services we've been to with their parents. We're not "real" parishioners but there doesn't seem to be the kinds of organized Sunday schools that were active when our kids were young in the 1980s and before that way back in the late 50s-early 60s when I was a regular in Sunday school and confirmation class. Too many female priests now means it's harder for boys/young men to see themselves entering the priesthood. It'll be the death of the church IMO; similar situation in academia. Men flee without saying why.
Here in my once country town in Quebec where I live outside of town of 2.4 acres. All of a sudden I’m only allowed 4:chickens. And there pushing through a low cost condo complex in the village which everyone is against. Control is the name of the game
Nicely done. I live in a Brooklyn/Country club combo suburb. Yes we did have the town featured multiple times as one of the best places to live in the US. Then, during the fraud-demic more AWFL's from NY-NJ flooded in. Yes the state and town were insane covidiots, but not as bad as further south. Plus we actually have some space, tho they are trying to eliminate that through ridiculous affordable housing developments - and yes they all were in favor of them until they started popping up in their back yards. The yard signs are rampant - "Hate has no home here", "We believe in science...", BLM, No kings, Ukraine flags, yadda, yadda, American flags are scarce. Taxes and energy prices are stupendous. Government corruption, incompetence and blueness is beyond measure. Thanks for not publishing the Americana cities.
Farmlands are disappearing in-part because of green power advocates' drive to install wind turbines and solar panels on what now are good, productive farms.
It always blows me away when I travel to places like Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, or Los Angeles and there are few (if any) solar panels visible when landing at their airports. Why aren't there solar panels installed on warehouse roofs, or solar carports installed on the acres and acres of asphalt parking lots? You'd think that every new gigantic Amazon warehouse should be designed with rooftop solar in mind.
Meanwhile, massive solar projects are being planned to be installed on existing farmland in places like upstate New York that only get a fraction of the sunny days that you'd see in Phoenix or Las Vegas.
While it is a very true assesment of our Country - it made me very sad. We have to face the truth. Only the 'Americana' the real America. If our people are so different in the huge majority - can we have any hope to rebuild? I did have the hope always. But now, I dont know. I am just dreaming?
Those examples (all 5 of them) are why we have lived rural since I was 24 years old. Until 2020 we were 8 miles away from a small town. In 2020 we radically downsized to a small home with 2 and 3/4 acre in a mixed area with vacation homes and cottages, houses, mobile homes and RVs located about 7.5 miles from the nearest town. Note: I still wish I could be more rural without the surrounding houses, etc.
"If our government and corporations diverted funds to revitalize these areas instead of domestic favelas and foreign countries, they can reach their former glories." I try to make this point to people who demand rent control or blame greedy (fill in the blank) for expensive housing. I respond simply, we don't have a housing shortage as much as a shortage of where people want to live. I grew up in a pleasant suburban area with rolling hills. Looking back, many of the kids I went to school with lived in homes the size of my kitchen. But we didn't think about the income inequality back then because it didn't matter. There were less flashy toys to show the difference in income. The area is now a no man's land with nice brick homes but no grocery stores or schools. The city is a shell, though some pretty buildings remain. I believe the abandoned houses should all be torn down, and what is fit for residences should be left. (Can you imagine our ancestors exiting Ellis Island and being told you can get a house with indoor plumbing, with an explanation of what that meant, but it is in an undesirable area? We've all become soft.) I wonder if we should reintroduce urban farming. Anyway, the point should be to think outside the box. I didn't know the fact of what Obama did, but it was already heading that way. I was friendly with a woman from Michigan decades ago. Dearborn was already getting iffy.
There's a #6 in there: The Formerly Country suburb. It's the place that used to be a smattering of farms and acreage, inhabited by people who were living there on purpose to be away from the urban sprawl only to find themselves being sucked up in urban sprawl and having to deal with the problems that come with it (NIMBYs, hicklibs, NPR soaked "homesteaders" who gently condescend to the ignorant yokels that know that they're doing).
On the outskirts of Americana live the "Countryside sububurbians" Farmland with no industry, home sites with acreage, close enough to decent towns but far enough away to shoot your guns and drive fast for miles. Easier to stay friendly with the neighbors regardless of their degree of Libtardism. Typically, these are in red states. Quiet nights, open land, residents armed.
Bastion towns are the opposite of sanctuary cities. Don’t let the urban colonizers pave it over with their NPC culture.
You described exactly what has happened in the rural area we moved from in 2020. It started with "back to the landers" in the 1970s, then brought in the trustifarian children of the wealthy. Then the political landscape shifted from solid red to solid blue. Boutique stores that don't seem to make money but survive because they are supported by the trust funds and are more a symbol of "I am better than you". Now the property taxes have blown up into the ozone and the long time locals are moving further away if they can.
You are describing the entire state of Vermont.
And much of Midcoast Maine!
Perfect. You just described why I’m suddenly looking at the real estate apps for the first time in years.
https://peaceandquiet.io
Add that to your real estate searching. Use the appropriate filters. 😉
That’s a pretty interesting tool. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks.
Let’s drop the facade—this is economic and cultural engineering, and the middle class is the casualty. When you offshore industry, flood labor markets, inflate housing, and expand dependency, you don’t just “evolve” suburbs—you fracture them. The stable, self-sufficient American family becomes an endangered species, squeezed between decline and unaffordable “safety.” That’s not a bug, it’s the outcome. Because a strong middle class is independent, and independence is hard to control. What you’re left with is a two-tier system: elites insulated at the top, instability below. And the middle? It’s being erased in real time while everyone pretends it’s just the market at work.
Starting Salary for a great (GPA 3.5+) Electrical Engineering graduate in 2000: $60 - $65K
Starting Salary for a great (GPA 3.5+) Electrical Engineering graduate in 2025: $60 - $65K
Pay in real terms down by 50%.
What kind of shortage causes prices to go down?
A Fake one.
That's what "legal" immigration has done for Americans.
I am one of those legal immigrants you don't like, and in general, I agree with you. However, I like to add a few annotations on the lesser points.
(1) Around the year 2000, the US EE/CS were clearly overpaid when compared to engineers living and working in Asia. American engineers (including the legal immigrants) were more capable, but Asian engineers were paid at about 10% of the US engineering. By the year 2015 or so, the pay ratio between the US and (China, India) had dropped to around 3:1. But the living expense ratio was probably also 3:1 by then.
(2) I graduated from graduate school in 1991. IMHO, the "real" US economy had been going downhill since 1987, and off the cliff after the stock market peak in early 2000. Manufacturing and R&D hollow-out is not the fault of legal immigrants. Legal immigrants are subject to the same hollowing out and have even more difficulties in finding comparable jobs.
(3) There are at least four types of legal immigrants (3.1) real refugees, (3.2) people who earn PR by professional skills, (3.3) immigrants as relatives of (3.2), and (3.4) investment immigration, especially capital flights from all around the world. I think type (3.2) provides mostly a positive contribution to the US economy. Types (3.1) and (3.3) are mostly a drag as it is difficult for most foreigners to cross the cultural gaps. This is true all over the world. (3.4) is mostly a source of social corruption.
(4) Legal immigration is not a problem as long as these people come in with a worthy skill. Even illegal immigration is not that much of a problem as long as there is no voter and social welfare fraud. The US tax systems (income tax brackets, tariff loopholes, corporate tax structure, preferential treatment to capital, etc.) and the blind pursuit of profits (what I call naked capitalism) are the most critical culprits.
"Manufacturing and R&D hollow-out is not the fault of legal immigrants."
I would agree with you except that every where that "legal" immigrants worm their way into hiring positions, they only hire foreigners after that. The "legal" immigrants are not hapless victims along with Americans, they are a part of the problem because of their discriminatory hiring practices.
"Legal immigration is not a problem as long as these people come in with a worthy skill."
That's a laugh. The US job market cannot absorb the world's surplus. If you truly have an engineering degree you ought to be able to do simple math.
In my personal observation, immigrant managers tend to hire more whites lest they be ridiculed for ethnic hiring. White managers, on the other hand, tend to hire a few minorities due to HR policies. The exception is probably Indian managers. In particular, Intel and Qualcomm have many examples of Indian managers hiring mostly Indian engineers.
Legal immigrants DO take away some high-paying jobs in the US. I don't see anyone who can argue about that. At the same time, I spent 7 years in US graduate schools to see that Americans born in the US are not very interested in engineering. For those who graduate from engineering schools, however, they are as good as or better than their counterparts in Asia, and frequently as good as Asian students who have graduate degrees.
The US job market certainly cannot and should not absorb the world's surplus. If the US does import population, the policies ought to be picky. And perhaps very picky if you like. However, the capitalists in charge in the US do not think along that line.
I can't argue with your final paragraph. Perhaps the reason you don't see as many US citizens in engineering is because salaries have not kept pace, because they've been driven down by visa holders.
I told my Son, flat out, don't go into EE or CS because you'll be replaced by a visa holder and won't be able to finish out your career.
If policy makers want Americans in Engineering, then they need to leave the incentives in place for people to enter engineering. Importing endless foreigners has destroyed those incentives.
Apparently things are at the point now, where new grads can't even get jobs.
That is certainly true right now. If I had children, I would probably tell them NOT to go into EECS, too, but for various other reasons. At least for a while, but probably for the long term, R&D in EECS is in a capital-intensive rather than talent-intensive environment. The time for an electronics hobbyist to carve out a small business for a living has long gone and will not come back.
If the US as a society wants to protect the future supply of domestic-produced engineers, then there is no doubt that (1) No IT or R&D out-sourcing to other countries (not just Asia, but also East Europe, South America, and the Middle East). (2) Limit foreign students to STEM. especially those with military associations, and equal quota from each country, say, no single country can keep a total of more than 20 thousand engineering students in the US at any given time. (3) Limit the number of H-1. (4) increase scholarship to native STEM students, and more so for advanced degree programs, as the problems are not limited to EECS or undergraduate programs.
On the other hand, the capitalists are similar to the communists in that they treat people like another kind of material or objects. If they can import goods at will, then there is no preventing them from importing humans, resources, or garbage. Therefore, at the same time as protecting the domestic supply of STEM talents, it is equally important to establish a tariff barrier. If engineering R&D and product design can be done overseas (as of now), then there is little point in training engineers at home. For example, Apple computers are still mostly designed inside the US, but most Windows laptops are partially designed overseas, as do most of the desktop motherboards. Almost all peripheral cards are designed overseas. Most subassemblies are built in Asia. If we don't move the R&D as well as manufacturing back, there is no point in keeping the domestic talent supply chain. Tariff barrier is a must for the US for at least one generation until a domestic balance is reached.
Very astute comment. Right on point.
I recently moved to one of these at-risk Americana suburbs and while many of my city friends are excited about me reaching the milestone of owning a home, I can detect a bit of confusion at me moving to somewhere "boring". There's even a bit of pity/mockery from some of them. They can make fun all they want, but they're the ones dealing with stolen packages, homeless people living within eyesight, and never knowing their neighbors. When I lived in that city, a woman yelled at my husband for returning her dropped wallet to her. That's the average interaction you get with your neighbors in those places.
We moved to a totally different part of the country and instantly the guy across the street offered to help us shovel out from the blizzard, and the people next door (a very nice retired couple) insisted that we ask them if we ever need any tools or help with anything. Families walk by and wave. Kids are actually playing outside. I can walk my dog and not worry about cars or psychotic cyclists mowing us down. It rules. I cannot for a second imagine moving back to a city.
Keep reinforcing that your town is boring. Complain to them how unwalkable it is.
“They don’t even have any bottomless brunch spots here!”
No, but the retired woman next door loves to bake and have you over for a bit of strudel and a nice cup of tea. She doesn't even expect any tips in return, only some friendly conversation about the children, grandchildren, and how the garden is growing...
I live on the other side of the world, and yet … same story;
the cities here suck as well and for the same reason; shitty people
while the countryside is absolutely lovely and also for the same reason; there’s a real community, people care for each other
Deport and incarcerate not only illegals, but those who enable them. When a police department enforces by political affiliation rather than by law, arrest, charge, and replace them. When judges render decisions for political rather than constitutional reasons, impeach and remove them. Without remedial action all the bleating about what's wrong will do nothing except add to the noise.
I live in an "Americana" suburb that's sadly, slowly drifting towards a "Brooklyn burb". Our city is currently a safe, quiet community with a strong downtown core that includes many successful locally-owned businesses, etc. The overwhelming majority of the housing stock has traditionally been owner-occupied single family homes.
But over the past 25 years we've seen the local city politics shift from solidly red, to purple, and now, blue. Corporations rush to purchase any homes that come on the market, and rent them out to short/intermediate-term tenants. The newly-elected city council is pushing hard to change zoning laws to permit more condos, townhouses, and apartments to encourage "diversity" and to allow "everyone to live here". Council is also attempting to change zoning to encourage retail to build outside the downtown core, to the potential detriment of the existing businesses.
It's time to move.
Those 'Brooklyn Burbs' are taking over here in the Southern US, as the Yankees move south and bring their Yankee baggage with them to ruin what was a nice town.
Fortunately, most of the Yankees moving south are more conservative than liberal, which is why they left the north. But there are enough northern liberals to ruin it for everyone else.
That's basically what happened to the suburb we used to live in, in WA. In that case though, the density-diversity type stuff was imposed on the state level and likely resulted from the federal level. I could be wrong, but I think Obama administration (or time period) put into place density type requirements for state and local areas to receive federal funds. I don't have time to research what exactly happened but we watched our state and then county impose the exact requirements. If I'm right, this means checking if your state has accepted and imposed these requirements, before deciding to move within the same state.
I live near an historical town (my town borders it). The progressive town council that gets elected in that historical town is pushing for more condos and high rise buildings IN the town square. The town square that still attracts people who come specifically for the history, to walk the battlefields, eat in the family-owned restaurants. And the people who actually run the town are trying to make it more modern. The oldness of the town is what drives the tourism, which is the main income for most businesses! It's mind-boggling!
Northern Virginia suburbs here. I have lived here most of my adult life.
My parents came in 1947 when I father came over to work for a Dutch office in New York, as an accountant. Both of my parents were US citizens by then, my father and his brother became US citizens in 1923, when my grampa and his wife came to the US, New Jersey where all the Dutch people settled, or most of them. Then is was just back and forth. Interestingly, my dad was a POW in WW2 taken up in a razzia in 44 because his family was living in Rotterdam at that time
Northern Virginia has changed. I remember the farms and the cows and horses where what is now Tyson Corner.
Yep, I remember when Tysons Corner was just a corner. I went to pre-school there at that time.
I grew up in the Greenbriar development on Hwy. 50. All up and down the highway you could find creeks to stop at and fish (what we'd call rivers down here in Texas).
The area behind our house was undeveloped, so there was room to launch rockets, chase butterflies and generally run around loose in a tiny wilderness.
All apartments now, I think.
There is also another trend: People who are living in Cars, Vans, small Travel Trailers, Tiny Homes off grid and on the fringes. They can't afford traditional homes anymore and rents are so high their limited money goes farther in this array of alternative housing. Many are retired old people, many others are young who have no way to get into the traditional housing. People are creative and will find ways. Then, there are the homeless which is not a good situation to be in, particularly in cities.
There are a lot of retired old people living in single-family homes and it always makes me wonder what it was that drove all their children away to live on their own instead of staying in a more traditional multi-generational setting (think of the admittedly idyllic Walton's Mountain from 1970's TV.)
It wasn't only the lure of jobs in the big cities, because even there you'll find families where the kids have left home and moved to a neighborhood in the same city or a nearby suburb within the same commuting distance as the home they grew up in.
The culture really has changed since people left to find careers in other cities far from where they grew up. Even farms became a different life and the number of family farms declined drastically. Also, since WWII most women began working. When they had children they may have stopped to be there for the kids until they were old enough to not need mom at home, so mom would start working again. That is what my mother did. But the other change is that the costs of living and need to have two cars made it harder to live on one income. Most grown children did not expect to ever be living at home again. Most parents, particularly middle class ones had access to pensions, created savings and investments. Would downsize and even move to warmer states when they got old. Now that the wealth bubble is collapsing, more people are seeing the need to live together again. I don't know what percentage are actually doing it, however. My brother sponged off my father for years as an adult. When dad retired he actually moved to American Samoa. Then my brother HAD to put his live together, which he did, and did well.
I guess part of the explanation is that people see it as "sponging" off their parents. We use similar phrases like "failure to launch", all of which suggest that independent living is the hallmark of success -- even if it usually means starting a household all over again from scratch. Multigenerational households aren't as lucrative from the perspective of the merchants who want to sell new stuff, because grandpa and grandma, father and mother, have already acquired most of the furniture, kitchen gear, shop tools, and gardening equipment that a household requires. (Here I'm thinking of the time before cheap IKEA crap and other planned obsolescence.)
Some of the furniture I had in my 1st apartment would have made IKEA crap look elegant. I had a blow up 2 seat couch and chair. If one person sat on one side it would flip over, the chair was a bit more stable. I found a TV on the curb for the trash to pick up. Brought it in it worked except the colors were bizarre, so we played around with it til it was tolerable. Mind you this was 1971. Had 3 room mates. We all scrounged up stuff. Another place was across the street from UW Milwaukee and the owner rented out attic rooms to students and others including a guy - a printer, who had been a Nazi tank driver in the war. 3rd apt we had a couple roommates again on was applying for a job as a tailor and made a suit, vest and two pairs of pants and a tie for the interview. He got the job and soon moved out. He was an inspiration to me. I worked in machine a shop that summer and learned every skill I could.
My story is similar. It was during the 70's and in one of those shared housing dives that I met the girl who eventually became my ex.
DeKalb IL, a college town not quite as radical in those days as U Wisconsin but close enough.
Good insights! Here in suburban Houston, I live in a community that is Americana trending favela. It might be more favela, but the immigrants are so diverse, one variety can't take over. In our neighborhood, the immigrant families (maybe a little under ~50%) are mostly upscale and generally pretty quiet and easy to get along with. I'm hoping the day doesn't come very soon that it tips full favela.
A deeper dive into a heavily islamicized Dearborn can be examined. It does seem to fit that Third World-ish designation but I have seen Americana spirit from residents. Specifically, Lebanese folk of Christian faith have gone there for a new home and to set up shop, in pursuit of that still desirable American dream. They may have to save the suburb from completely losing its roots.
They couldn't do it in their homelands.
Must be pretty incredible to have the people they were trying to get away from show up here.
Dearborns residents were brought in by Ford in the early 1920s and most were Christian/Chaldean families. Some Muslims too but not as many. Seems like the Chaldeans moved to other areas and left it to the Shia. Dearborn is the largest middle eastern population outside their homelands.
Once in a while in the 80s/90s you’d see a burka at a Metropark but now the beach is full of them… it is unbelievable those in power allowed this to happen and that it’s escalated to what we see today in the news. I’m pleased to say that there isn’t black smoke coming from the south yet but my eyes are open!
Here in Middle TN south of Nashville we have a Coptic Community (Egyptian Christians, among the oldest such group on earth) that has purchased an ugly 1950s Church of Christ building. The parking lot overflows several times a week and I believe they've purchased the largish house and property next door. Cars parked on the lawn every Sunday and Holy Day. God love 'em! The 15-yr old mosque is a couple of miles away, so I think these Coptics are keeping an eye on that crowd;-) All of this religious fervor is embarrassing to us Episcopalians!
What is your church membership like? I did a research paper and I believe Episcopalian average age is 68 or something like that? Plenty of funerals, no baptisms....
There are children attending the services we've been to with their parents. We're not "real" parishioners but there doesn't seem to be the kinds of organized Sunday schools that were active when our kids were young in the 1980s and before that way back in the late 50s-early 60s when I was a regular in Sunday school and confirmation class. Too many female priests now means it's harder for boys/young men to see themselves entering the priesthood. It'll be the death of the church IMO; similar situation in academia. Men flee without saying why.
Here in my once country town in Quebec where I live outside of town of 2.4 acres. All of a sudden I’m only allowed 4:chickens. And there pushing through a low cost condo complex in the village which everyone is against. Control is the name of the game
Nicely done. I live in a Brooklyn/Country club combo suburb. Yes we did have the town featured multiple times as one of the best places to live in the US. Then, during the fraud-demic more AWFL's from NY-NJ flooded in. Yes the state and town were insane covidiots, but not as bad as further south. Plus we actually have some space, tho they are trying to eliminate that through ridiculous affordable housing developments - and yes they all were in favor of them until they started popping up in their back yards. The yard signs are rampant - "Hate has no home here", "We believe in science...", BLM, No kings, Ukraine flags, yadda, yadda, American flags are scarce. Taxes and energy prices are stupendous. Government corruption, incompetence and blueness is beyond measure. Thanks for not publishing the Americana cities.
Joel Salatin writes a blog regarding what's happening in farming. This is a big clue as to why farmlands are disappearing.
Farmlands are disappearing in-part because of green power advocates' drive to install wind turbines and solar panels on what now are good, productive farms.
It always blows me away when I travel to places like Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, or Los Angeles and there are few (if any) solar panels visible when landing at their airports. Why aren't there solar panels installed on warehouse roofs, or solar carports installed on the acres and acres of asphalt parking lots? You'd think that every new gigantic Amazon warehouse should be designed with rooftop solar in mind.
Meanwhile, massive solar projects are being planned to be installed on existing farmland in places like upstate New York that only get a fraction of the sunny days that you'd see in Phoenix or Las Vegas.
OMG 500 Likes for you! Totally on target.
Waste of money and resources (solar panels) no matter where they're installed.
Well, they need the land for the AI data centers, don't ya know. and the water.
“make America affordable again is mass deportations and incarceration…” so true.
While it is a very true assesment of our Country - it made me very sad. We have to face the truth. Only the 'Americana' the real America. If our people are so different in the huge majority - can we have any hope to rebuild? I did have the hope always. But now, I dont know. I am just dreaming?
Those examples (all 5 of them) are why we have lived rural since I was 24 years old. Until 2020 we were 8 miles away from a small town. In 2020 we radically downsized to a small home with 2 and 3/4 acre in a mixed area with vacation homes and cottages, houses, mobile homes and RVs located about 7.5 miles from the nearest town. Note: I still wish I could be more rural without the surrounding houses, etc.
"If our government and corporations diverted funds to revitalize these areas instead of domestic favelas and foreign countries, they can reach their former glories." I try to make this point to people who demand rent control or blame greedy (fill in the blank) for expensive housing. I respond simply, we don't have a housing shortage as much as a shortage of where people want to live. I grew up in a pleasant suburban area with rolling hills. Looking back, many of the kids I went to school with lived in homes the size of my kitchen. But we didn't think about the income inequality back then because it didn't matter. There were less flashy toys to show the difference in income. The area is now a no man's land with nice brick homes but no grocery stores or schools. The city is a shell, though some pretty buildings remain. I believe the abandoned houses should all be torn down, and what is fit for residences should be left. (Can you imagine our ancestors exiting Ellis Island and being told you can get a house with indoor plumbing, with an explanation of what that meant, but it is in an undesirable area? We've all become soft.) I wonder if we should reintroduce urban farming. Anyway, the point should be to think outside the box. I didn't know the fact of what Obama did, but it was already heading that way. I was friendly with a woman from Michigan decades ago. Dearborn was already getting iffy.