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American Dream, Downsized
The Nation ^ | February 6, 2007 | Andrew Lam

Posted on 02/06/2007 10:21:19 PM PST by MinorityRepublican

San Francisco

In my apartment building people of various income levels are stacked on top of each other. The architect and the teacher occupy one-bedroom apartments on the floor above me. They are considered middle-class and, for that matter, so am I. An affluent, well-traveled couple lives in a two-bedroom apartment on the top floor. A poor Chinese immigrant family of five is crammed into the converted storage room where half a dozen bicycles were once kept, their children often turning the foyer into a makeshift playground strewn with plastic toys.

This is typical of the way we live in urban areas around the world: people of various classes live right next to, if not on top of, one another. We share the same address, practically, but occupy a very different sense of space. And just like those in the middle of my building, the middle class everywhere is feeling the pinch.

For the first time in human history there are more people living in urban areas than rural, and cities have grown like amoeba into megacities--so crowded that they have become virtual countries with complex ecosystems unto themselves. Tokyo leads the pack with 31 million residents. Seoul has 23 million, followed by New York and Bombay.

Living space, unless one belongs to that tiny percentage called the upper class, is shrinking as the human population continues to grow. While the rural poor leave open sky and rolling plains to flock to the edge of the metropolis--they crowd into ramshackle slums in the third world, or one-room units in the first--the middle class is clinging to its precious status by contending with far smaller living spaces than those of previous generations.

I remember when a middle-class family could own a Victorian home in San Francisco. Now such a home would be divided into three or four units, each remodeled and sold to an upper middle-class couple.

Case in point: I went with some friends to look at a two-bedroom house the other day. It's a bungalow that was once the home of a working-class family in the 50s. Now, with skyrocketing prices and a prime location, it's out of reach for my friend, who is a single lawyer. The little house was going for a little over $1.3 million dollars. "My American dream," she said with a sigh, "has just been seriously downsized."

Of course, the further you go from the city, the more space you can afford. But there's a catch: if you want more space you'll likely have to exchange it for your time. The price tag for a front yard and back garden can be a four-hour commute every day.

Shrinking along with the American dream of home ownership is the size of the family. Fewer adults are having children. Once a rural necessity, having children in an urban setting is no longer as vital. In megacities like New York, Tokyo, Paris and Hong Kong, the birth rate is on a steep decline. After all, having a child could mean sliding from the middle class to the standard living of the poor, with a crib in the walk-in closet, a garden on the fire escape. Hong Kong, which has the highest human density in the world, also has one of the lowest birth rates: 0.93 per couple last year. A room of one's own may be all the space one has, if one is lucky.

Today a condo is what most in the middle class can hope for in places like San Francisco or New York. I suspect that in another generation or two, middle-class homes in American cities will look like those of Tokyo today--which is to say, the size of a train compartment.

That Japanese minimalism has become the dominant style in the modern world is no fluke. Bigger was once said to be better, but what's chic and ultramodern today--what fits--is smaller and streamlined. The laptop takes no space at all, the iPod is the size of a credit card, the stereo system that once occupied a generous portion of a living room is now so flat and ridiculously thin that you can hardly see it behind the rhododendrons, and the TV that once took too much space on top of the sideboard now hangs on the wall like a mirror. "I used to dream of a house with a nice backyard," a friend of mine quipped, "but now I am just happy with a flat and a flat-screen TV." It's no surprise that Ikea, the global furniture store that takes maximization of living space seriously, is doing so splendidly.

Last night, two homeless men had a row near my apartment building. There's a little space between two columns in front of a boarded-up store that's protected from the wind, a much-coveted place to sleep. The man who regularly made a bed there found someone else in his digs. "This is my space!" he screamed at the crasher, and several well-dressed young people who walked by snickered.

To young people, "MySpace" as a phrase has a totally different connotation, evoking the virtual neighborhood where real estate is still plentiful and cheap. In 2050, nervous demographers tell us, there will be 9 billion of us. It is probably why so many of us now, feeling the onset of collective claustrophobia, spend an inordinate amount of our time logging in.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: California
KEYWORDS: bubble; california; demagogicparty; genx; homosexualagenda; housing; liberalhypocrisy; sanfrancisco
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To: KoRn; ex-Texan

Damn. We got a six-bedroom Victorian on a half-acre for literally 1/4th of what they were marketing that little house for!


41 posted on 02/07/2007 6:58:00 AM PST by Malacoda (A day without a pi$$ed-off muslim is like a day without sunshine.)
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To: onedoug

ping


42 posted on 02/07/2007 9:32:38 AM PST by windcliff
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To: MinorityRepublican

If we want to restore America we need only repeal the Treaty and open the land office for recording claims to homesteads, homesites, and mineral resources.


43 posted on 02/07/2007 9:34:38 AM PST by RightWhale (300 miles north of Big Wild Life)
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To: MinorityRepublican
"Today a condo is what most in the middle class can hope for in places like San Francisco or New York. I suspect that in another generation or two, middle-class homes in American cities will look like those of Tokyo today--which is to say, the size of a train compartment."

Yada yada yada

Poor, poor person. Too bad he doesn't recognize a world outside "places like San Francisco or New York." I hope he stays where he is.

44 posted on 02/07/2007 9:40:52 AM PST by Texas_shutterbug
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To: MinorityRepublican
I have downsized as well.

Moved from 145 acres to 100 acres then to 25 acres.


BUMP

45 posted on 02/07/2007 9:42:57 AM PST by capitalist229 (Get Democrats out of our pockets and Republicans out of our bedrooms.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Heavens no, I'm not in Mass. I'm in the KC metro area (on the Kansas side) waiting to begin negotiations for a home I have a contract on. I recently returned from Los Angeles where there was no way in hell I could even afford a one bedroom condo. I'm hoping to get into this 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home for around $165,000, if not lower.


46 posted on 02/07/2007 10:20:11 AM PST by peggybac (Tolerance is the virtue of believing in nothing)
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To: ex-Texan

In what part of LA are those homes for sale? I'm surprised the 3 bedroom wasn't snatched up by a buyer.


47 posted on 02/07/2007 10:22:08 AM PST by peggybac (Tolerance is the virtue of believing in nothing)
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To: MinorityRepublican; qam1
I remember when a middle-class family could own a Victorian home in San Francisco. Now such a home would be divided into three or four units, each remodeled and sold to an upper middle-class couple.

That's what it is to be Gen-X

This should be a Gen-X ping.

48 posted on 02/07/2007 10:27:52 AM PST by Cogadh na Sith (There's an open road from the cradle to the tomb.)
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To: flashbunny
There are plenty of places where the land is cheap, the air is clean, and there's plenty of space to roam.

And there are no jobs....

49 posted on 02/07/2007 10:28:24 AM PST by Cogadh na Sith (There's an open road from the cradle to the tomb.)
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To: MinorityRepublican
you don't have to live that way......you could move out to tiny towns or villages or move to a farm.....

trouble is its out in fly over land and you won't get your fancy, smancy big paychecks nor will you be able to go to the sushi bar.....

these whiners make me sick...

50 posted on 02/07/2007 10:28:56 AM PST by cherry
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To: Cogadh na Sith; ItsOurTimeNow; PresbyRev; Fraulein; StoneColdGOP; Clemenza; m18436572; ...
Xer Ping

Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.

Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.

51 posted on 02/07/2007 10:34:15 AM PST by qam1 (There's been a huge party. All plates and the bottles are empty, all that's left is the bill to pay)
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Comment #52 Removed by Moderator

To: flashbunny
There are plenty of places where the land is cheap, the air is clean, and there's plenty of space to roam.

Are there jobs in these places? As the writer of the article mentioned, that option is available, but at the expense of a long commute.
53 posted on 02/07/2007 10:43:02 AM PST by MinnesotaLibertarian
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Comment #54 Removed by Moderator

To: lndrvr1972
You are absolutely correct on both points.

Carolyn

55 posted on 02/07/2007 10:54:08 AM PST by CDHart ("It's too late to work within the system and too early to shoot the b@#$%^&s."--Claire Wolfe)
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To: windcliff
"It's a shack!"

"I have no maid, you know. Probably never will have...."

56 posted on 02/07/2007 11:16:49 AM PST by onedoug
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To: MinnesotaLibertarian

There may be, but in different area.

Life is a series of choices. He made the choice to live where he lives and work where he works. He can't use his own choice and make a blanket claim that "the american dream is downsized."

But I'm all for him staying in his concrete paradise.


57 posted on 02/07/2007 11:38:55 AM PST by flashbunny (<---------- Hate RINOs? Click my name for 2008 GOP RINO collector cards.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Ask this silly writer some pertinent questions:
1. Does he support unrestricted immigration, or not?
2. Does he support rent control, or not?
3. Does he support environmental laws that restrict available land to build near metro areas, or not?
4. Does he support a large city government, with all it's services, and all of it's heavy taxation, or not?
5. Does he support high density skyscrapers in San Fransisco or not?
6. Does he commit his column space to any of the above arguments?

Whining little bitch can't figure out the basics of life. He has a platform to speak out, and can't get past the narcissism stage.


58 posted on 02/07/2007 11:54:31 AM PST by JerseyHighlander
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To: singfreedom

I, for one, was born in a big city. We would love to live in a smaller town with a bigger house. The problem is finding a job in a smaller town that will support seven people. Until then, we're stuck in the city.


59 posted on 02/07/2007 12:25:37 PM PST by HungarianGypsy
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To: MinorityRepublican

BIG HOUSE ON LOTS OF LAND THAT COST VERY LITTLE TO BUY=
typically less wages, must own car and all expenses related to that, cost more to heat and cool as compared to smaller place, cost more to maintain (garden, yard, upkeep, etc..) Typically if it cost less, it doesn't gain as much in equity very quickly. Must spend more on furnishings and "stuff" to fill up the home. Neighbors that you see once in a great while. Only if they happen to be driving by when you are outside working on the yard maintenance.

SMALLER PLACE, WITH NO LAND, COST MUCH TO BUY=don't need a car because public transportation is reliable and cheap. Can usually walk to many places which will keep you healthier so less in doctor's appointments and medications, don't have yard or garden to maintain, cheaper to cool and heat, values tend to rise faster and at much higher percentage when located in big cities, lack of space = less to buy to fill up that space (saves money). Lots of cool neighbors that you actually would see on a daily basis. You actually interact with real people daily.

In the end they both probably equal out. Because in the end you can't take either one with you!


60 posted on 02/08/2007 8:36:56 PM PST by CANBFORGIVEN (! Corinthians 2:14)
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