Watch this video ad-free on Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/not-just-bikes-why-american-cities-are-broke-the-growth-ponzi-scheme-st03 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: https://strongtowns.org/membership Watch the rest of this series here:    • Strong Towns   Sign up to Nebula and watch ad-free and sponsor-free: https://go.nebula.tv/notjustbikes Patreon: https://patreon.com/notjustbikes Twitter: https://twitter.com/notjustbikes Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/notjustbikes One-time donations: https://notjustbikes.com/donate NJB Live (my bicycle livestream channel): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9v57F4xz46KaDsvWfCv8yw This video is a summary of the "Growth Ponzi Scheme" articles, published by Strong Towns: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/8/28/the-growth-ponzi-scheme-a-crash-course https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/5/14/americas-growth-ponzi-scheme-md2020 https://www.strongtowns.org/the-growth-ponzi-scheme https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2011/6/13/the-growth-ponzi-scheme-part-1.html https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2011/6/14/the-growth-ponzi-scheme-part-2.html https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2011/6/15/the-growth-ponzi-scheme-part-3.html https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2011/6/16/the-growth-ponzi-scheme-part-4.html https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2011/6/16/the-growth-ponzi-scheme-part-5-finale.html Strong Towns publishes a lot of cases studies of American municipal insolvency. Here are a few of them: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2010/1/11/the-cost-of-development-local-roads-edition.html https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2009/3/30/the-cost-of-development-one-example.html https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2010/3/17/the-cost-of-development-walker-industrial-park.html https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2010/5/5/the-mailbox-tower-historic-harbor-renaissance.html https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2012/1/2/the-cost-of-auto-orientation.html https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2014/7/22/the-cost-of-auto-orientation-update.html https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2014/7/29/the-taco-johns-of-buffalo.html https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/11/13/kansas-city-ebook-md2020 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: https://www.strongtowns.org/stmedia --- Other References & Video Sources: Give Yourself the Green Light (1954) (Public Domain) Henry Jamison Handy https://archive.org/details/GiveYour1954 According to Plan: The Story of Modern Sidewalls for the Homes of America Henry Jamison Handy https://archive.org/details/Accordin1952 Settlement Pattern and Form with Service Cost Analaysis Halifax Regional Municipality - Regional Planning https://usa.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2015/03/Halifax-data.pdf Traditional Development - #6 in the Strong Towns Curbside Chat Video Series Strong Towns (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGxni1c-klM 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