Salvaging America's Infrastructure Pt.1 | Are we in America the platform for the next third world environment?

Each of these photographs below could be from just about any community within the United States. It looks innocent enough, but let's take a peak into what lies just under the surface.

Observations about our typical infrastructure

• First we note that this kind of suburban environment is designed around an automobile not the people who live in the community. The form giver for this design is the normal turning radius of a car.

• True freedoms are homogenized into the same vanilla wrapping through zoning restrictions. This is our "legalized" way of enforcing economic segregation. In so doing, we neuter individual initiative in favor of more watered down and dumbed down society.

• We note the complete absence of the ability to produce sustainable volume's of food. This community depends on the availability of a grocery store somewhere within driving distance.

• This also means that the food they eat is most likely produced based on industrial techniques that is dependent on factory farms along with their fossil fuel contrivances.

• There is the absence of any educational facilities not associated with transportation dependent on fossil fuels.

• Health care facilities are not located within the communities boundaries. Local treatment centers are absent.

• Note the architecture is devoid of community activity space. Unless you use the sidewalk you are unlikely to be involved with a neighbor as this interaction has been design out of the community. It is by design an isolationist environment.

• More than likely each of these homes is lacking in the basics of energy conservation or alternative energy production in the context of its use. This factor leads the infrastructure to be dependent on large scale energy producers.

• There is no ability to generate or harvest water. Depending on the climate the waste water associated with rain would meet much of the needs of each household.

• Recreational facilities are absent.

• Jobs are found somewhere apart from the community more than likely dependent on several forms of carbon based transportation.

• There are no corporate worship facilities where faith can be exercised among family and friends.

• No waste recycling or composting is occurring if statistics in the US are to be believed. Recycling is a rarity in most neighborhoods.

• The amount of plastics contained in the typical household would stagger the imagination. Much of what is purchased on a regular basis has its origins in manipulated markets involving China at some level.

• There is no ability to produce any of life's amenities within this neighborhood. There is no commercial shopping that is not associated with carbon based transportation.

• Each of these homes, more than likely, has a mortgage associated with servicing debts established through fractional banking. Each resident is going to spend the majority of their productive life lending credible value to a banking system where one dollar is lent out 9 times. They are serving debt that was created out of thin air by the central banks.

• There is no local governing component or public safety presence within the communities context. Access to police, security and fire fighting support are all dependent on fossil fuels.

• The mindset in this community is that if you have money, it is your right to spend it however and with whom every you wish without any understanding of the consequences locally or globally. This line of thinking gets wrapped in the flag as part of our freedom as American's. In this community freedom is but an illusion created by those who want us to spend our lives servicing someone else's agenda.

For the most part this kind of community planning is being promoted by a developer who wants to maximize density to increase profits on land sales. It would be great if this were some throw back from the 60's but it isn't. This approach to community development plays out practically every day in cities across America. What does this kind of community development say about the future?
The real issue that drives this kind of thinking is cheap and abundantly available energy. In particular, cheap oil. Imagine with me for a moment that something might be wrong with this line of reasoning. What if oil is a finite commodity that at some point in time will in fact "peak," or simply be out of financial reach of the ordinary citizen? 

• In a modern well educated society we would have by now developed sustainable solutions to what this is going to look like..........Right? 

• Our government has a plan..........Right?  

• Somehow the government of the United States will put its full backing to the long term solution........Right?  

• They have the larger university centers and architectural firms devising a plan as we speak ..........Right? 

• No one would leave the majority of American's without some means to care for itself ..........Right? 

• Our food production and health care system is developing a carbon free foot print........Right? 

•  As a US citizens I am entitled to the government taking care of me.........Right?

The fact is there isn't a cohesive well organized plan. 

The only group working on solutions is the private sector. The government does not, nor will, have the resources to fix this problem. Uncle Sam is broke and we all know it. We are at present unable to develop balanced budgets just to maintain where we are. We add trillions to the national debt each year. Congress is just as clueless as its not politically popular to be pro-active in fixing any problems.  

What is the true cost to humanity of sustaining our current lifestyles as American citizens? Can mankind continue to foot the bill for us to maintain this line of thinking unabated?

The green energy programs now active are in many ways only a tax haven for the multi-national companies. They are looking for ways to use tax dollars to perpetuate their predation. The government is funding as much as a third of the cost associated with each individual facility. Sell the investment and the new owner writes off the entire cost of the operation a second time. This creates a shell game of national significance.  

What will life be like without plastics let alone oil? Much of our agri-chemical production is oil based. Add to this the massive dependency of our health care system and we have a major crisis on our hands.

There are isolated pockets of people who are raising an alarm, while offering solutions. But for the most part we continue to believe the propaganda we hear and read that all is well. The problem is what if it's not? What if in the next 20 to 30 years oil is too costly or unavailable? What if we are forced by some means to be a equal "per capita" user of oil along with the other members of humanity. What if China wants the same availability to oil we have enjoyed for decades. Is the oil supply a global commodity that everyone has the right to same as us? What will happen to the American landscape when oil is no longer available or in limited supply?

It will take decades to retool the American suburban infrastructure. We have to develop plans NOW! Solutions are being modeled that need to be implemented on a much large scale. Retrofitting is possible if we begin to take definitive steps in the right direction. The hardest obstacle we face is the retooling of our minds. 

The night before the Berlin wall fell, all of humanity slept with the comfort of thinking that all would continue as it always had in Russia. The next morning they were awaken to the sounds of hammers pulling down the wall. Crisis management is always the most costly approach to problem solving. Lets begin to collectively dialogue about what a post-peak oil American infrastructure looks like. In part two and three of this series we'll explore what we can do both today and tomorrow to take decisive action to bring about change.