2 ms·

Amusingly, even if everyone had their own personal Palace of Versailles, we still wouldn't cover the entire surface area of the Earth.

Arizhel 10y ago
Not many people want a property the size of Versailles in someplace like Siberia or Antarctica. Only a small amount of the Earth's surface is land (30%), and of that, only a fraction is land that anyone wants to live on.
- areyousure 10y ago
  I looked up some context out of curiosity. Siberia appears to be home to 40 million people (half a percent of the world) now, living at a population density of five Palace of Versailles per person. Antarctica isn't doing as well, with only 1--5 thousand people at a time. Millions of people live on land that was formerly water. For example, many people in the Netherlands live below sea level. A sixth of the current land mass of the Netherlands has been reclaimed. Of course, worldwide it seems that only slightly more than about 1% of 1% of land is reclaimed. Not many people literally live on water, but it seems that the worldwide total is at least 100,000 (or a small multiple thereof). Estimates of what portion of the land on Earth is "habitable" varies, but is usually about half of the land. At that rate, we would have to share each Palace of Versailles with all of 5 other people.
  - Arizhel 10y ago
    You're still equating all "habitable" land as equal. I'm sorry, but land in northern Canada or the Saudi Arabian desert is not equivalent to land in Hawaii. Only in one of those places can you enjoy being outdoors year-round; the other places will literally kill you if you stay outside for very long. That's exactly the main reason there's reclaimed land in places like the Netherlands. No one cares about reclaiming land in Siberia because very few people want to live there (and those that do, likely live there just because of work and because they have no easy way of moving someplace nicer). Finally, those people living in Siberia likely do not have that much living space per person, certainly nothing like the palace of Versailles. More likely, they live in mining towns or small cities, in small houses or apartments, with most of the land area being unused.

Arizhel 10y ago

Not many people want a property the size of Versailles in someplace like Siberia or Antarctica. Only a small amount of the Earth's surface is land (30%), and of that, only a fraction is land that anyone wants to live on.

areyousure 10y ago
I looked up some context out of curiosity. Siberia appears to be home to 40 million people (half a percent of the world) now, living at a population density of five Palace of Versailles per person. Antarctica isn't doing as well, with only 1--5 thousand people at a time. Millions of people live on land that was formerly water. For example, many people in the Netherlands live below sea level. A sixth of the current land mass of the Netherlands has been reclaimed. Of course, worldwide it seems that only slightly more than about 1% of 1% of land is reclaimed. Not many people literally live on water, but it seems that the worldwide total is at least 100,000 (or a small multiple thereof). Estimates of what portion of the land on Earth is "habitable" varies, but is usually about half of the land. At that rate, we would have to share each Palace of Versailles with all of 5 other people.
- Arizhel 10y ago
  You're still equating all "habitable" land as equal. I'm sorry, but land in northern Canada or the Saudi Arabian desert is not equivalent to land in Hawaii. Only in one of those places can you enjoy being outdoors year-round; the other places will literally kill you if you stay outside for very long. That's exactly the main reason there's reclaimed land in places like the Netherlands. No one cares about reclaiming land in Siberia because very few people want to live there (and those that do, likely live there just because of work and because they have no easy way of moving someplace nicer). Finally, those people living in Siberia likely do not have that much living space per person, certainly nothing like the palace of Versailles. More likely, they live in mining towns or small cities, in small houses or apartments, with most of the land area being unused.