The New American Dream

I look around my neighborhood and see the American Dream. I live in an upper-class community with large (some huge) homes with well-coiffed lawns and landscaping, and two or three cars parked in every garage. The super-sized suburban properties where I live in Western Howard County Maryland typically sit on from 1/4 acre to 1/2 acre to 10+ acre lots with the driveways alone being bigger than most European flats--the picture of the American Dream.

The problem is that the American Dream, our way of life, is irresponsible, wasteful and unsustainable. Most of the enormous houses have rooms or spaces that are not needed, consume unspeakable amounts of mostly fossil-fuel-based or non-renewable energy sources, and sit on excessive amounts of scarce land. As most everyone already knows, "suburban sprawl" consumes too much land with too few homes for our population, and only forces more road building and newer development further out.

Today, people in search of affordable housing and land are forced to commute from faraway suburbs in Western Maryland, Pennsylvania and even West Virginia to job centers in Baltimore or Washington D.C. These commuters waste a tremendous amount of gasoline--polluting our environment and increasing our dependency on foreign oil.

In order to meet the needs of this growing and spreading population, our food and product distribution networks have become highly specialized hub and spoke systems that become ever more dependent on truck-based shipping and are highly prone to disruption. To service these far-out communities, our energy distribution systems are being taxed and thus are vulnerable to failure or from attack by enemies.

Suburban lawns require fertilization whose runoff pollutes our already-fragile water systems. Gas-powered mowers used to cut grass only further drains our limited gasoline supplies and pollutes our air. Did you know that gas-powered mowers are responsible for 5% of all air pollution in the U.S.?

It is not new news that, as populations increase, land grows scarce and roads become more jammed in the U.S., the trend has been heading back to high-density development and living. The suburbanite's way of life is simply too wasteful for our society to sustain much longer. Most new major housing developments are already in-fill or neo-urban, mixed-use projects that seek to return us to traditional city-style living, i.e. smaller, connected or multi-unit dwellings with little or no land that are close to restaurants, stores, theatres, museums, parks, etc. Only cities allow people to efficiently use limited land and natural resources, and provide communities with the optimal balance of home, work and play. Cities were, and will be again, the only viable and sustainable place for people to live and work.

Non-renewable energy sources like oil and natural gas pollute our environment and their supply is finite. Americans must more seriously reconsider our reliance on them to heat our homes, propel our cars and power our factories. A return to a living model that is less car-dependent and more moderate in the consumption of limited natural and other resources is inevitable.

The New American Dream will be one of lowered expectations, more moderate consumption and of resource conservation. Americans must embrace a simpler, smaller and less-wasteful future. It is a future that returns us to high-density living with smaller living quarters, more walking/less driving, fewer gas-powered vehicles and devices, locally-produced foods and goods, and ultimately, a better quality of life. A declining dependency on foreign energy, food and other resources will also reduce our geopolitical risks and their associated costs considerably. Americans need to accept this new way of life sooner or later, or our standard of living will surely decline.