Quote Originally Posted by Pat001 View Post
Sprawl is a red herring. The worst mistake America made was de-industrialization. And both parties are to blame. America and Detroit were booming until we began closing thousands of factories and exporting millions of manufacturing jobs to foreign countries. When people have good paying jobs, money and hope for the future, the other problems tend to take care of themselves.

In all fairness plants were closed when the only industrial power to survive unscathed from WWII increasingly had to compete with the rebuilt economies that would work for less. Consumers decided that a better product at a lower price was reasonable thing to do. Housing & highway construction was one of the few activities that could not be outsourced. Unfortunately we decided to abandon our cities and start from scratch rather than rebuild them as did our former enemies and allies.