

The Era Of Giant Chain Stores Is Over — And They've Ruined America - SlipperySlope
http://www.businessinsider.com/scale-implosion-2013-2

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sc68cal
Anyone who has not seen his TED talk, should take a couple of moments and
watch - for me, it finally distilled some of the discomfort I had always felt,
growing up in the exurbs of Philadelphia:

[http://www.ted.com/talks/james_howard_kunstler_dissects_subu...](http://www.ted.com/talks/james_howard_kunstler_dissects_suburbia.html)

> "“The public realm in America has two roles: it is the dwelling place of our
> civilization and our civic life, and it is the physical manifestation of the
> common good. When you degrade the public realm, you will automatically
> degrade the quality of your civic life and the character of all the
> enactments of your public life and communal life that take place there.”" —
> James Howard Kunstler

>"“I like to call it ‘the national automobile slum.’ You can call it suburban
sprawl. I think it’s appropriate to call it the greatest misallocation of
resources in the history of the world.”"

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mark_l_watson
Thanks, that video was great. I,sometimes try to talk to friends and family
about how our economy will contract after QE2 and other financial scams fail,
and to hear Kunstler talk makes me more confident in my own thoughts on how
society needs to become more local, less energy dependent. Good stuff.

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SlipperySlope
Essentially ...

"The older generations responsible for all that may be done for, but the
momentum has now turned in the opposite direction. Though the public hasn't
groked it yet, WalMart and its kindred malignant organisms have entered their
own yeast-overgrowth death spiral. In a now permanently contracting economy
the big box model fails spectacularly. Every element of economic reality is
now poised to squash them."

and hackers are making that all happen!

