Duncan's Landscape Taste...

To me, the difference between Duncan and Bickford is in the approach to the topic of socio-economic exclusiveness. I appreciate Duncan’s use of the case study. I had to double check the date of publish, because I found the price of the homes in the alpha and beta groups to be extremely reasonable.

I believe this question of social class segregation will be a topic for, possibly, ever. Why this is one of the reasons for which we find ourselves on this land mass, our ancestor’s quest for the “American Dream”. The haves and have-nots as it was often referred, has long been the social divide. The concern can be found in many professions.

Literature is full of social commentary on this topic. The author and social commentator Charles Dickens felt the use of statistics to be a form of class-bias. Since the suburbs are often used in social statistics I wonder if are we further developing the divide by denouncing types of suburbs. With an alpha and beta housing community as examples, I am left to wonder if this idea of the have’s and the have not’s, is not doing much in way of good as it is encouraging the distinction. The media can create hype for the exclusive, in this example a community golf club. I argue if these exclusive groups would flourish without the press that is often focused on the “exclusivity”.

As mentioned on NPR, in 2004, former Senator John Edwards based his bid for the Democratic nomination on what he coined the “two Americas”. The program mentioned President Bush’s lack of discussion on the income inequalities although he has been quoted, “Better schools can help close the wealth divide”. Obviously most of these “better schools” will probably be found in those “better communities”, although I do value the discussion.

The assigned reading has prompted me to consider my role in the social divide. According to the NPR report, conservatives would blame me; the belief being that the increase in single-parent households has contributed to the increase of the divide. Perhaps; yet the ideal family, a father working outside the home with a mother taking care of the children, certainly only earns one set of wages with benefits. Although isn’t this perfection just a false nostalgic notion advertised in our media? Nothing sells biscuits or maple syrup quite like the romantic notion of an ideal family.

The question remains, how to lessen the divide in our nation’s sub-divisions? The problem is far greater than home ownership; this is a behavioral pattern of most, to be distinguished or recognized as a certain type of person, whether you are of the alphas or the betas group. I am wary to jump on this band wagon with my pitch fork; the problem could exist in an opposing extreme like in Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, Harrison Bergeron, where social equality is forced, and I could not live with that either.