America won't move ahead without hard conservation. There will need to be new transportation solutions along with new answers about what it means to live.
Look, if people from cold climates want to live there post peak, then they will have to get used to the idea of 700 sq ft or less. They will have to get back to the small sq ftage of the 19th century but because there are too many people they might have to occupy even less sq ftage. Only the rich will be able to heat a bigger place.
Otherwise issues like water infrastructure, then electricity, then material cost feature too highly in a world where the institutions Americans hold so dear are gobbling the difference up. If you don't think Americans won't give those institutions so much post peak just look at what they have sacrificed in order to have a military over a national health system. They could have scaled back and had both. In the end they will have neither.
After TSHTF what will America look like as opposed to what it needs to look like to survive? Will they waste their time in falling apart or in coming together? Will they be able to face scaling down? Will they learn to share?

