A critique of how chasing single numbers — cheap prices, test scores, revenue per square foot — has hollowed out American towns, factories, and schools.

• Optimizing only for the lowest price pushed manufacturing overseas and left cheap goods in place of jobs.
• Big box stores win on revenue per square foot, so towns get parking lots instead of places worth looking at.
• Schools that chase test scores produce narrow smarts and lose wisdom and judgment along the way.
• In places like Sedona, Arizona, so many homes became short-term rentals that the town emptied out — nobody takes care of a house they are just renting.

Outlook: Expect more pushback on short-term rentals and offshoring as communities try to claw back ownership of their own towns.