Occasionally I go with some friends in their car to the new sprawl area of town. Inaccessible by bike or bus. The new subdivisions have all the grey tract houses with HUGE 3 and 1/2 car garages in the front of the house. Or maybe a two car and a 2and 1/2 car garage. All the winding streets connect to arterial roads which have no sidewalks much less a bike path. So every drives everywhere on what was the worlds best farm land a few years ago. And the old sprawl of 20 or 30 years ago is now the new ghetto.

Meanwhile in Mexico the tortilla's are getting too expensive to buy and people go hungry. Ethanol plants in the Midwest,USA,are spouting up all over the place. It makes the grain farmers and Agribusiness pretty happy though. The per capita income in the county I live in has decreased 15% in the last 10 years due to loss of manufacturing jobs. So who is buying all the new houses and new cars? Why aren't there sidewalks and bike trails in the new urban sprawl area? The huge indoor mall doesn't even have bus service and it has been there and is still growing for the last 25 years.

It is not just about the declining standard of living in the first world vs. 3rd world countries. It is about the average person being squezzed out everywhere.