Why American Cities Are Broke - The Growth Ponzi Scheme [ST03]

Watch this video ad-free on Nebula: This is the 3rd video in the Strong Towns series, and is probably the most important core topic: the fact that American car-dependant cities and suburbs are financially insolvent, and function like a Ponzi scheme. This is the reason most American cities are bankrupt. If you learned something from this video, consider donating to Strong Towns: Watch the rest of this series here: Sign up to Nebula and watch ad-free and sponsor-free: Patreon: Twitter: Reddit: One-time donations: NJB Live (my bicycle livestream channel): This video is a summary of the “Growth Ponzi Scheme“ articles, published by Strong Towns: Strong Towns publishes a lot of cases studies of American municipal insolvency. Here are a few of them: There is a lot more to read, too! Strong Towns has a library of articles about building strong and resilient towns and cities that goes back over 15 years: --- Other References & Video Sources: Give Yourself the Green Light (1954) (Public Domain) Henry Jamison Handy According to Plan: The Story of Modern Sidewalls for the Homes of America Henry Jamison Handy Settlement Pattern and Form with Service Cost Analaysis Halifax Regional Municipality - Regional Planning Traditional Development - #6 in the Strong Towns Curbside Chat Video Series Strong Towns (YouTube): Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:05 The History of Sprawl 1:03 What is a Ponzi Scheme? 1:51 The Problem 2:19 How it Started 4:17 Graphical Examples 6:27 The Excuses 7:35 The Canadian Example 8:12 Conclusion 9:02 Patreon Shoutout 9:18 Outro