&gt; Basically America is bad because we had space for cars when they were invented?<p>American suburbs are bad for all the reasons listed. They force people to drive, making people fat. Ironically, they make traffic terrible at the same time, especially traffic into the nearby principal city. They kill child independence by making it impossible for kids to get around without adults driving them somewhere. They strongly economically segregate people so that people don&#x27;t mix much with different demographic groups. And they&#x27;re usually economically unsustainable, because they don&#x27;t generate enough tax revenue to support their own infrastructure (something which isn&#x27;t apparent until decades after initial construction, and thus easy to miss): <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.strongtowns.org&#x2F;the-growth-ponzi-scheme&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.strongtowns.org&#x2F;the-growth-ponzi-scheme&#x2F;</a>