32
37
common good. As a result of these issues Americans began to regard themselves as consumers rather than citizens. The problem with this attitude is that consumers, unlike citizens, have no responsibilities, obligations, or duties to anything beyond their own needs and 38
desires. The American dream mutated from a set of ideas about liberty to a more materialistic notion of the suburban house and all its trappings. This dream was the anticipated reward for hard work and sacrifice following WWII. As the costs of the suburban house continue to exceed the grasp of an increasingly larger number of American families, the dream is morphing again, this time into an entitlement or even a birthright.
39
The lack of a larger construct to establish the
idea of a common good has left only the idea that the marketplace is the sole arbiter of what makes life worth living. This deficiency has lead to people spending an inordinate amount of time and energy trying to prove that they are better than others by accumulating objects with which they associate an increasing amount of their identities.
Notes 38 Kunstler, 38.
40
This has led to the amassing of a mountain of
debt that as individuals and a society America will likely never be able to repay.
39 Ibid., 33.
40 ibid., 61.
provide a higher quality, less costly and more quickly built
41 Kieran & Timberlake, 21.
Off-site fabrication offers the opportunity to 41
alternative to the traditional “stick-built� home. Further, by promoting future expansion through expandable modules and updatable assemblies the home buyer is able to buy only what meets his or her immediate needs with the assurance that they will be able to expand their home as requirements change and finances permit.