Suburban America is a Ponzi scheme.

A report out today from Strong Towns makes this bold claim.

It argues that the mass migration from cities to suburban areas following World War II has seen two cycles of growth and maintenance. The first cycle was paid for outright, the second is heavily financed, and the third cycle is poised at the brink of an abyss.

Like Bernie Madoff, city planners swapped long-term obligations for short-term cash, expanding at an unsustainable rate and developing land they could never afford to maintain.

Strong Towns backs up this argument with real-world case studies from the following U.S. municipal projects.