Tony is capturing the actual motivation of the song more closely. The problem it seeks to underscore is one of human compromise, walking away from individual commitments to integrity and aesthetics and individual soul for the sake of mass low-dollar building, very profitable to the builders, very costly to the souls, and subscribed to by the managers of the cities, counties, and states where these rather ugly housing developments sprang up.

Compared to the housing scarcity extremes of the 40's, when people sometimes had to live in converted chicken coops because housing was so scarce, I suppose the Levittowns were a great success. But it was antithetical to human values which in the long run mighntprove to be more important.


A