A Critical View of the Urban Crisis

In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Band 405, S. 7-14

Abstract

The accounts usually given of the causes of the "Ur crisis" are not satisfactory: congestion is decreasing, not increasing; the flight to the suburbs has not left the central cities on the verge of bankruptcy; the Ur housing supply is on the whole much better than ever; "white racism" has long been on the wane, & blacks are making rapid income & other gains; & the fragmentation of local gov does not account for its ineffectiveness. Changes in the state of the public mind are the main cause of the "crisis." Set in motion mainly by the ideas of philosophers, these are reflected in the att's of elites & of the Mc with respect to authority, the self, rational egotism, hedonism, egalitarianism, & consumerism. It follows that the "crisis" will not be ended by either gov programs or by exhortation. Modified HA.