>Building a city around cars means building it around people who live far away.

No, that's what the suburban rail is for (see: NYC).

If anything, the suburban people can always park on the outskirts of city centers, and use public transportation (or walk) in the city.

But no, the cities had to be designed for the automobile. There was a lot of money to be made that way for the auto companies.

Think it sounds like a conspiracy theory? You are right, except that it's actually true[1].

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_consp...

Aka, the superwealthy.

I don't see how living in the suburbs makes you super-wealthy. In most American cities that I know of, the very poor live in the city, the middle class lives in the suburbs, and the very rich live in top-floor penthouses and wherever else they want. Roads, cars and long commutes are very much a middle-class thing, because the poor can't afford all the driving and the rich can buy a great house in the middle of the city where it would be the most expensive.

I got a lot of downvotes and it's because I didn't direct my comment well enough, this is who I was referring to as the superwealthy:

> people who are a block away from every place they need to go.

I don't know of any city in the U.S. where a middle class person can live within walking distance of everything that they need. Take a look at the most urban cities in the U.S., San Francisco, New York, Boston. You're not living in a walkable place in those cities unless you have a title that includes "executive" or "vice" in it.

The closest is probably Chicago.

I'd argue that the super-wealthy only live in the suburbs because that's the best place to live in a city designed to serve the suburbs. In London, the super wealthy live right in the centre...

The situation is reversed in the USA. In the US, the wealthy and middle class live in suburbs. The poor live in the "inner city" which essentially is a euphemism for ghetto.

That situation reversed again in the USA about twenty years ago.

The typical American situation today in 2018, is the poor live in inner-ring "old" suburbs, or the edge of the inner city. The middle class live in outer-ring "new" suburbs. The wealthy live in the heart of city, or in any part of the city dense enough to feel urban-ish (any 'gentrified' neighborhood).

Depending on the city, the suburbs can be much cheaper.

Uhh... you haven't been to the suburbs lately.