Not at all. There is no such thing in a landscape that is changing on time scales that are visible to people, as our societies are. You can't stay stuck on a local maximum if the landscape changes it out from under you. You have to keep reconsidering things.

> you're happy to waste time arguing against them?

The (pretty limited) time I have spent posting in this discussion has not been wasted. I'm having fun.

There is another local optimum, which is extensive public transit and walkable city centers. I'd argue that that other local optimum is far preferable, but transitioning there is very difficult.

And I'd argue that this might be true for your preferences, but that doesn't mean it's true for everyone's. People have different preferences.

I disagree. It may be that the vast majority of Americans have never been exposed to your particular preferred solution, but that's also true of the vast majority of people who live anywhere except a few East Asian cities, according to you. So I don't see why you are singling out Americans. You should be chastising basically everyone outside of East Asia for being backward. (And then, of course, you would just have even more people ignoring you.)

As for why I'm singling out Americans: this thread began with a discussion about Americans.