The Next American Dream And The Next Australian Dream

Allison Arieff writes in a NYT blog about the American Dream: Phase II. The American Dream, as it unsurprisingly turns out, is the same as the Australian Dream. Or rather more accurately I'm sure, the other way around. A big house, a piece of land, 2.5 kids, a dog, a couple of cars and whatever brand new item needs to be consumed. 

Allison writes:

We’ve built more houses than we’ve needed — and built them farther away from jobs. This has led to longer commutes, which has created more traffic. In response, we built more highways, increasing fuel consumption and, as transportation planners acknowledge, doing little if anything to reduce traffic. It’s a vicious, seemingly endless cycle, and at its core is the notion that the American dream can exist only within the framework of the single-family home on a large lot.

 Luckily, it seems, things are slowly beginning to change in America, argues Allison, people are becoming more interested in the communities surrounding them than the amount of hummers their carport fits. But not everyone is interested (or stands to profit from) such a change...

Read on.