Excellent series Scott.
As for how our country seems to act, I think it's a combination of several factors, including not building things to last, not wanting to be like where our founders came from, and poor planning to begin with - having to raze structures to make ones that have more capacity, i.e. townhomes where single family homes once stood.
This is also why SoCal has horrible traffic, but it's only been in the last few decades that we figured out the best way to build in an EQ zone. ; Except for Newport Beach, where it doesn't matter. ; Everything will sink when the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_liquefaction">ground liquifies</a>.