I don't know if "Americans don't like living in dense cities" can be called a truism though. Wouldn't that assume that in America, there are no dense cities? Wouldn't the existence of dense cities along side suburbs indicate that there is a wide range of preference?
Of course there is a range of preference -- it's not an absolute statement. Hell, I used to live in NYC and now I live in a rural area surrounded by horses and cornfields.
But the fact that so many people choose to live in the suburbs (and now an increasing number of those are moving out to the country!) indicates that city life is unsuitable for many. Honestly, the only thing that keeps me tied to a certain distance from the city is the availability of DSL.
So all of those massively expensive condos that are built in the middle of dense cities are for poor people? People complaining about how expensive real estate is 'downtown' are just extremely poor people because they can't even afford what regular poor people can?
In any case, living in suburbs doesn't account for the preference of wanting to drive everywhere. It's perfectly possible to build suburbs that are walking distance from most local stores that you would need (i.e. grocery, hardware, etc).
