[QuarterReptile]

I think I must miss the point of articles like this. Is this author trying to warn us of downward spirals he's seen? Impart his priorities upon us?

There are a lot of articles here that try to isolate and analyze pivotal traits or habits. This is the opposite, throwing everything you can imagine into one big, confused soup of "what caused what?".

It could also be that this is a common mindset, but I just haven't met these people.

I just wish the suburban experiment would die already: it's quite a hellish existence to have to endure, just because you didn't take the time to learn about all the odd artificial incentives that push people toward that unproductive and isolating pattern of life.

[ArkyBeagle]

I really read the article like a "Trouble Brewing" "Far Side" cartoon. Guy thinks "going into management" will mean the skies will open up; guy is overleveraged and one layoff away from bankruptcy, maybe divorce, who knows? Guy is clearly not "management material" in the eyes of his employer, which is a dwindling enterprise with probably an end date.

The main thing he: he depends on credit vendors for establishing limits on spending.

I've lived in 'burbs all my life, and most people are pretty happy with it. I mean it's nice to have a forced exercise program with "walkability" but it's hardly critical and hard to substitute for.

[Grishnakh]

>I've lived in 'burbs all my life, and most people are pretty happy with it. I mean it's nice to have a forced exercise program with "walkability" but it's hardly critical

Given the obesity epidemic in America this days, I think you're wrong here about the criticality of walkability. Go to Manhattan sometime and see if you can find any fat people. Now go to suburban Atlanta and see how many people are so fat they need motorized carts just to shop at Walmart.

[ArkyBeagle]

Bluntly, I don't think we understand the obesity problem.

[Grishnakh]

I think a lot of it is fairly obvious: diet and exercise. My evidence is pretty simple: look at cultures (including local cultures) where everyone drives everywhere, versus cultures where everyone walks everywhere. You just don't see morbidly obese people in cultures where they're forced to walk a lot; it's mainly an American and Western phenomenon (it's worst in America and Mexico). Diet is probably another big factor: in obese cultures, calories are cheap, but the food quality is generally very poor.