re: Americans Say They Need to Earn $128,000 to Feel Financially OK.

I think Deenan in particular isn't granular enough at times, as I think the strain of excessive individualism is more tied to the experience settlers had in the New World, and thus deeply engrained in a particular type of American mythos. And that some of the implements of liberalism he criticizes, like feminism, ended up attempting to try to make that individualism its own thing, if that makes sense. Oddly enough, I found Deenan had something in common with other American writers, like Wendell Berry and Edward Abbey, as they all seem to be criticizing the same thing albeit from very different angles.

My personal view is that city design in the post-war era started a mass marketization of individualism, in ways that didn't necessarily exist before the war. Every city had to be designed around the car, around malls and other private spaces. There has to be some sense of balance between public and private spaces, as what makes private property uniquely valuable is not only the fact that it is private, but that it is not a public space, if that makes sense. Without that tension, the ownership of a thing becomes less meaningful, especially in light of just how much Americans in particular can own.

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Populations are supposed to grow. We are living in 1960's era infrastructure when the country is 150 million people larger.

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There are TOO MANY PEOPLE .

Blaming it on politicians or infrastructure is the biggest reach ive ever heard .

Yep, white collar jobs are too concentrated in about 10-15 metros.

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there are too many people wanting to live the same lifestyle in the same parts of the country

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That may be, but I also think this is due to excessive centralization. Between major cities, large portions of the US look like a wasteland. People generally go where the jobs are, though, and I don't know if we will ever break the hold of this very specific pattern of centralization. Yeah people want to live certain types of lives in LA, for example, but I think cities also impose a certain type of lifestyle on people too.