Kunstler is a crank, but he's often dead-on

On the onset of peak oil woes (more specifically, higher gasoline prices).

"They will discover that a luxurious private realm, with more bathrooms per inhabitant than any other society, will not compensate for a public realm that has been reduced and impoverished into a universal automobile slum." [link]

Precisely. Decades of public underinvestment (with the exception of our highway system) have left us in a state of profound public impoverishment, despite private affluence. Those billions that the French spent, to keep their fantastic rail system running, and that the Spanish spent, to build a modern public transport infrastructure from a creaky, inferior one, don't seem so stupid, do they? (Despite articles in The Economist decrying overdevelopment of the state. The British Thatcherite model for public investment -- i.e., none -- has not worked out well in the long run.)