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>Question is what to do about it? I'm not sure if this requires a cultural shift, but other places in the world seems to be better at it. I would actually argu

by derg 6y ago

>Question is what to do about it? I'm not sure if this requires a cultural shift, but other places in the world seems to be better at it. I would actually argue it is a cultural thing to be completely honest. Speaking from experience as an American at least, there is large cultural tradition driving this: the protestant work ethic that drives the idea of rugged individualism, the automobile, the implicit requirement that you consume consume consume and every waking hour not at your job must be doing something profitable. You can't have a "hobby", you gotta try to transform that into a "side hustle" (ughhh) because your day to day job likely doesn't pay enough to live while you pay hundreds of dollars a month towards student loans for an education that you likely don't even use to live in a house or apartment that you can barely afford due to lack of housing and the high prices that creates, while driving a car you probably can't afford due to the high housing prices necessitating you to live an hour or more away from your job.

yibg 6y ago
The point about individualism resonates a lot with me. Other parts of the world are also (and getting increasingly) material driven as well. However many are also more collectivist and have a heavy focus on (extended) family and community for example. Maybe living arrangements can be rethought to encourage some of these local communities. Instead of massive self contained houses, we should think more about clusters of dwellings. Each dwelling can have individual bedroom and bathing facilities but with shared common areas like kitchens / bbq that encourages interaction. I'm thinking something like a 6 - 10 small units linked to a larger communal area.
- derg 6y ago
  Even simpler: you can continue to have single-family homes that surround a common space like a yard or garden area would go a long way towards recreating a community. Even something as simple as closing streets and rerouting traffic like Barcelona is doing[0] would be an excellent start with already existing infrastructure. [0]https://www.vox.com/2016/8/4/12342806/barcelona-superblocks https://www.vox.com/2016/8/4/12342806/barcelona-superblocks

by derg 6y ago

yibg 6y ago

The point about individualism resonates a lot with me. Other parts of the world are also (and getting increasingly) material driven as well. However many are also more collectivist and have a heavy focus on (extended) family and community for example. Maybe living arrangements can be rethought to encourage some of these local communities. Instead of massive self contained houses, we should think more about clusters of dwellings. Each dwelling can have individual bedroom and bathing facilities but with shared common areas like kitchens / bbq that encourages interaction. I'm thinking something like a 6 - 10 small units linked to a larger communal area.

derg 6y ago
Even simpler: you can continue to have single-family homes that surround a common space like a yard or garden area would go a long way towards recreating a community. Even something as simple as closing streets and rerouting traffic like Barcelona is doing[0] would be an excellent start with already existing infrastructure. [0]https://www.vox.com/2016/8/4/12342806/barcelona-superblocks https://www.vox.com/2016/8/4/12342806/barcelona-superblocks