“WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR NEIGHBORHOODS?” by Zachary Miller (profile link pls?) My g

“WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR NEIGHBORHOODS?”

by Zachary Miller (profile link pls?)

My grandparents’ generation grew up in neighborhoods surrounded by their extended family. Nobody locked their doors – they didn’t have to. This was because all the mothers, aunts and grandmas carefully watched the kids run around outside while they passed along to each other the traditional feminine arts such as cooking and clothes-making. Meanwhile, the men worked hard, manly jobs. Community life was rich and filled with wholesome tradition. This is when America was great.

SO WHAT HAPPENED? Beginning in earnest after World War 2, the proponents of consumerism broke up the extended family in at least four major ways:

1. Shipping jobs overseas forced young men to leave their neighborhood in search of employment.

2. Paying poor protestants to move into working class Catholic neighborhoods caused the Catholics to disperse into the suburbs.

3. Agitating for doubling the workforce caused wages to halve, making it almost impossible to raise children on a single income.

4. The consumerist strip mall commons supplanted the old town center market commons.

AND WHY? Breaking up the extended family into atomized individuals was perpetuated to further the interests of consumerism. You see, an extended family neighborhood relies upon each other for products and services. On the other hand, atomized individuals will purchase those products and services from the consumer commons.

It’s that simple.

(via Brandon Hayes )