America is addicted to parking lots — and it's killing the economy

Tue, 04/04/2023 - 06:03

A blue car drives across the outside of the earth. Following the car, the surface of the earth incrementally is covered by a full parking lot. — The US is home to as many as 2 billion parking spots. All this wasted space is wrecking our economy and making it harder to building homes.
iStock; Robyn Phelps/Insider

It's not just an immense waste of space — it's killing the economy

You can learn a lot about what a company or society values by how it allocates resources. A business that cares about collaboration will invest in software and HR policies to help encourage connection between employees. A society committed to housing and feeding its people will ensure plenty of land is dedicated to homes and farms. Using that criterion, it's not a huge leap to conclude that American businesses and society believe cars are twice as precious as people.