(no subject)

[lucifermourning]

last night at the pub i had an intriguing discussion about american v. british attitudes toward living space. americans tend to have much bigger houses, particular middle class americans, than their british equivalants.
it was suggested that this is, in a great part, due to relative population densities, which i believe is probably roughly true. according to wikipedia, the UK has a population density of 243/square km, v. the US 30 /square km, albeit greatly varying by area.
but it also must have something to do with attitudes. those i spoke to may remember my description of the house i grew up--much square footage, large rooms, etc.--and not a particularly big house for my area. such living space are not at all atypical in new jersey--actually, it's quite challenging to find a small house.
but new jersey has a population density of 438/square km.
we just seem to think we need more space to live in.
(not that any of my conclusions are scientific, i'm just intrigued.)

Comments

[blue-cat.livejournal.com]

*Nod* It is also the myth of the wide open spaces, where every man can find a place and a patch of land to call his own. America is seen as a place with space, and so that is what people want.

The UK is not - it is a place of rolling hills and small tightly woven hamlets and towns & cities that are older than the USA and have WALLS for safety against the maruaders.

THis is all Mythic-style thinking rather than real reality but that is often what counts far more than simple facts.

[2eclipse.livejournal.com]

i 100% agree with this. americans have the pioneer independence ideal stuck so far up our asses that we feel cramped easily.

[(Anonymous)]

I used to assume the houses shown in films of the US were all rich people. It was only comparitively recently that I really grasped that these huge houses were normal homes. What a comparism with other parts of the world!

too far from the sidewalk

[grey-damaskena.livejournal.com]

When I show pictures of my house to my students, they think my family is rich. Of course we're not, though we're fairly well off, but Japan is more like England in this case than otherwise. If anything, living spaces are even smaller here.

There's another factor, of course, that being length of history for the general population. In both Japan and England, people have been building and rebuilding in the same locations for more than two thousand years. In the US, it's been about three hundred years for the oldest locations (yes, I'm discounting the native populations, because other than out west, they didn't build very permanently). I can't help but think that this has an influence on how much space people expect to have.