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> Americans do not want to live like the japanese, they want to be in suburbia. Because 40 years of policies have made that the primary option and most Americ

> Americans do not want to live like the japanese, they want to be in suburbia. Because 40 years of policies have made that the primary option and most Americans don't even understand other forms of living. They think of urban as New York City or poor cheap Appartements where poor people live. You literally have made alternative forms of living illigal in most of the US, thus most people don't even have the option. The few places that do exist with good urbanism generally are very expensive and often can be expanded because of zoning laws and other legal issues. > I just realize that Americans deeply value personal space Funny how somehow Americans weren't that special in valuing social space into the 1930s and then somehow starting in the later 30 and then increasingly in the 50/60 they did. Crazy continence that this happened right at the same time as a massive state drive to subsidize that style of living. Its almost like its not inherent but rather constructed. Funny how living in Russian cities and living in US cities in the 1920 weren't that difference and then the two states started subsidizing/legally mandating radically different models. And then, just by coincidence I'm sure, most Americans mostly now live exactly like US government policy wanted and most former Soviet people live exactly like Soviet policy wanted. So your explanation for this that some how around 1920-1930 the US and Soviet culture radically changed and all of a sudden US culture preferred more space and Soviet culture preferred modernism. Crazy, its almost like culture responses to incentives and laws.

HDThoreaun 3y ago
Most people always preferred to have space. It just wasnt plausible before mass market cars, so people suffered in the cities. Of courts plenty like you and me prefer urban living, but the vast majority do not. We absolutely should look at policy that makes urban living easier and cheaper, but dont delude yourself that anywhere close to most people want to live like that.
- panick21_ 3y ago
  People also prefer to fly in personal helicopters. Simply because people like something doesn't mean it happens. The world has constraints. And those constraints negotiate between what people want and what makes sense in the real world. When you literally steam roll the constraints, make alternatives worse and literally flatten whole parts of cities to make things happen. Then that not a simply outcome of 'desire for more space'. Roads in subburbs aren't so absurdly large because of a desire for more space. Absurdly oversized lawns aren't actually that practical or useful (not to mention costly and environmental disaster). Your story of 'space above all else' simply doesn't hold up. Yes people want space, but they also want lots of other things. Its a balance. And if you do radical intervention to shift the balance you influence the result. The simply reality is that one of the driving forces of many suburban developments was that it was simply illegal for black people to move there. In fact, after a wguke prices in parts of the city were so low that you could get a whole lot more space for not so much money. And yet still many people moved to suberbia. Its almost as if massive investment in on thing and massive disinvestment in the other leads to people wanting to move where the investment is.

HDThoreaun 3y ago

Most people always preferred to have space. It just wasnt plausible before mass market cars, so people suffered in the cities. Of courts plenty like you and me prefer urban living, but the vast majority do not. We absolutely should look at policy that makes urban living easier and cheaper, but dont delude yourself that anywhere close to most people want to live like that.

panick21_ 3y ago
People also prefer to fly in personal helicopters. Simply because people like something doesn't mean it happens. The world has constraints. And those constraints negotiate between what people want and what makes sense in the real world. When you literally steam roll the constraints, make alternatives worse and literally flatten whole parts of cities to make things happen. Then that not a simply outcome of 'desire for more space'. Roads in subburbs aren't so absurdly large because of a desire for more space. Absurdly oversized lawns aren't actually that practical or useful (not to mention costly and environmental disaster). Your story of 'space above all else' simply doesn't hold up. Yes people want space, but they also want lots of other things. Its a balance. And if you do radical intervention to shift the balance you influence the result. The simply reality is that one of the driving forces of many suburban developments was that it was simply illegal for black people to move there. In fact, after a wguke prices in parts of the city were so low that you could get a whole lot more space for not so much money. And yet still many people moved to suberbia. Its almost as if massive investment in on thing and massive disinvestment in the other leads to people wanting to move where the investment is.