Silver lining?

Joel Kotkin, the “new urbanist,” thinks our economic problems could have a good effect on our culture. Problems in the housing market could keep people from moving so much; high energy prices could keep folks closer to home and encourage them to buy food and other products locally; the bad economy and unaffordable mortgages could force family members to depend more on each other, thus strengthening the extended family. Kotkin is an advocate of “localism,” a way of thinking that a strain of conservatives have turned to, that advocates decentralized government, strengthened mediating institutions such as the family and local governments, and the like.

Read his argument. It seems to me that the new economic problems are going to create a government that is even bigger and more powerful than ever before. But do you see any silver linings in the current economic clouds?