This is a thumbnail review from Candace Choi of the AP:
Our Financial Waywardness
The recession is exposing Americans’ financial bad habits, from overreaching to own a home to letting pocketbook troubles affect our physical well-being.
TITLE: The Cul-de-Sac Syndrome: Turning Around the Unsustainable American Dream
AP Bookshelf
Author: John F. Wasik
PRICE: $24.95 (hardcover)
SUMMARY: A house in the suburbs — it remains the American dream for many. Author John F. Wasik, a personal finance columnist for Bloomberg News, examines why so many mindlessly chase that ideal even when they can’t afford it. Wasik begins by exploring how the country’s enduring “preoccupation with property” was shaped through the decades by government policies and historic developments. He then examines the price of homeownership not just on individual families, but the collective damage suburban sprawl has had on the environment, national infrastructure and physical health. The outlook isn’t entirely bleak, however. Wasik wraps up by discussing ideas such as how emerging technologies to build greener homes could rehabilitate the nation’s unhealthy obsession with homeownership.
QUOTE: “While makeovers, status, entrepreneurship, and upward mobility may remain immutable parts of the American character, we need to get beyond this myth that homeownership is a durable and guaranteed investment in the American dream. For millions, it’s been a dangerous fallacy.”
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg Press
Tags: AP, Cul-de-Sac Syndrome