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Lawns are a place where I play, or my kids play. Or where I go to just sit and enjoy nature. They are also decoration (flower bed for example) to make my surrou
by ars 3y ago
Lawns are a place where I play, or my kids play. Or where I go to just sit and enjoy nature. They are also decoration (flower bed for example) to make my surroundings more pleasant which helps my mental state.
If your lawn is a Veblen good you are doing it wrong.
- fragmede 3y agoPeople enjoy their Louis Vuitton handbags, also improving their mental state. So the fact that you enjoy your lawn doesn't make it any less of a luxury good. Not faulting you for having one, we humans like our luxuries. Let's just understand that's what they are. Like BMWs and Rolexes.
- ars 3y ago> doesn't make it any less of a luxury good That's not what Veblen is. A Veblen is better the higher the price, and that is not correct for lawns. A lawn doesn't get better if the cost of the lawn is higher. A lawn is better simply for existing, which makes it a standard good.
- fragmede 3y agoVeblen is that the demand is higher the higher the price, instead of the opposite, but instead of getting hung up on wether or not it's a Veblen good, my larger point is that lawns are luxuries like BMWs and Rolexes. Nice if you can afford them but recognize that we've normalized being extra in this way.
- pandaman 3y agoThings you consider luxury may not be such for others and vice versa. You cannot really state your opinions as a fact and expect everyone to agree.
- fragmede 3y agoObviously. And my opinion is lawns are expensive designer patches of dirt. Like a Rolls Royce or a Bentley. Really nice, and there's a whole industry surrounding them, and a whole lot of culture surrounding having one but ultimately problematic for society if everyone has to have one of their own. Which comes to the part where there are facts. A house with a lawn takes up more space than the exact same home without a lawn. Adding the lawn increases the footprint of a house which increases size and drops population density, which makes services more expensive because things are simply further apart. No one has to agree with my opinion that lawns are a luxury good, but it is very expensive for everyone to think they want one.
- pandaman 3y ago>which makes services more expensive because things are simply further apart So does adding sewer, water and electricity too. And think of all the density we could get if could get rid of inner walls and stuff people together into one room per house? It doesn't make these items "luxury" for most people in the US though.
- timeagain 3y agoYeah my Rolex helps my mental state. I can read the time with it and it is useful for deep sea diving.
- ars 3y agoAnd you can do that with a cheaper watch also. That makes in a Veblen, but a more expensive lawn is not a better lawn. So a lawn is not a Veblen.
- fragmede 3y agoHaving a large expansive lawn with rocky features, rare plants, water features, and fish, while being perfectly manicured attached to an estate is a way better lawn than a 12x20 green rectangle in the front of a suburban home's lot.
- ars 3y agoThat's the opposite of what I said. A Veblen good means the same item, if priced higher, is somehow more desirable. But you've described a more expensive lawn that is actually better, which makes it a normal good. You are simply wrong about lawns being a Veblen, and you should acknowledge that.
- fragmede 3y agoA Veblen good is something for which demand goes up as it gets more expensive, not for the same item. A Rolex isn't the same as a Casio.
- wpm 3y agoSounds like an urban park.
- CalRobert 3y agoLawns exist in part because we made it too dangerous for kids to play in the street (this obviously will have a good deal of variance by location).