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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: goldstategop

Edwards also clear cut alot of acreage behind the house. Probably going to open up a hospital on that land so he'll be closer to his income stream. Or a mobile home park so he'll be closer to his voting base in the "other" America.....


21 posted on 02/06/2007 11:11:51 PM PST by Kickass Conservative (Sarcasm is something a liberal cannot understand. Along with everything else.)
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To: AlaskaErik
Erik, sounds good to me..

To make it so, I believe one key is to create multi-keyholes in decentralization of Fed Gov.
Current and improving tech doesn't require more than a local office in DC.

Somewhat a reverse of Congress having "local offices".

Spread the "tax wealth"..also spreads the Follow-On Wealth of private business in a logical manner.

For example, put Department of Ag in the Nations Breadbasket. That's where their work should be.

DOD should also be in a similar region. But it's rather a strategic consideration. Don't have your HQ on the perimeter.

My Point is, Pols need to work smarter and the electorate become more discriminatory...and demanding.
There's a heckuva hole in Appalachia and the Mid-West.
22 posted on 02/06/2007 11:52:14 PM PST by Gunny P (Gunny P)
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To: MinorityRepublican
Votes have consequences.

When you continually vote in endless building regulation and micromanage every aspect of construction through to the color of paint it costs, it costs dearly.

Go try to build something in San Francisco (or any other major city) and see what it takes. It is nearly impossible unless you are politically connected. Most city councils are no growth based and were elected by the voters. Pretty obvious why there's a shortage of affordable housing...

23 posted on 02/06/2007 11:58:40 PM PST by DB
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To: MinorityRepublican
Boo hoo.

Nobody made this guy live in San Francisco. Instead of whining about prices there, maybe he should look elsewhere.

24 posted on 02/06/2007 11:59:05 PM PST by SIDENET (No votes for RINOs.)
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To: MinorityRepublican
Living in a megacity is for idiots.
25 posted on 02/06/2007 11:59:18 PM PST by Centurion2000 (If you're not being shot at, it's not a high stress job.)
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To: PERKY2004

Excellent!


26 posted on 02/06/2007 11:59:54 PM PST by DB
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To: MinorityRepublican
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.

A Few Very Helpful Examples are Pictured Below:

This one bedroom house was listed for sale for $ 515,000 in Los Angeles. It did not sell but may reappear on the market later this year:


This three bedroom, one bath house was for sale in Los Angeles for only $ 445,000. It did not sell. The rumor is that it has been rented to Mexicans.

Want to learn more? Clickity, click click Or -- View helpful charts and graphs Here

27 posted on 02/07/2007 12:19:39 AM PST by ex-Texan (Matthew 7: 1 - 6)
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To: peggybac

You're still in Mass? Let the Liberals have it and move to the South. Not only that people are friendlier, but it's cheaper obviously from the evidence you pointed out.


28 posted on 02/07/2007 12:31:06 AM PST by MinorityRepublican (Everyone that doesn't like what America and President Bush has done for Iraq can all go to HELL)
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To: goldstategop

Even if the land is limited without any government interference, the skyscrapers could be built at a lower cost in which the developers would pass it on to the customers.


29 posted on 02/07/2007 12:32:57 AM PST by MinorityRepublican (Everyone that doesn't like what America and President Bush has done for Iraq can all go to HELL)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Its called ridiculous taxes. That is the problem. Too many people in this country need to speak up and ask where their hard earned money is going. And IMO many of these taxes are unconstitutional.


30 posted on 02/07/2007 12:43:04 AM PST by lndrvr1972
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To: MinorityRepublican

bookmark


31 posted on 02/07/2007 1:18:59 AM PST by GOP Poet
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To: flashbunny
Same here. I live in the same house I've lived in for well over 30 years and I don't see any reason to downsize, upsize, or any other damn "size". This must be something peculiar to young people--or those dumb enough to feel like they HAVE to live in a big city, but I don't think it necessarily means the American Dream has been "downsized" It's alway been a choice, and it still is.
32 posted on 02/07/2007 1:27:01 AM PST by singfreedom ("Victory at all costs,.......for without victory there is no survival."--Churchill--that's "Winston")
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To: MinorityRepublican

"I remember when a middle-class family could own a Victorian home
in San Francisco. "

LOL!
That was in the era of the old movie "I Remember Mama"!
(Early 1900s)

Before the housing market got into permanent bubble mode via the
gay influx and the Internet bubble!


33 posted on 02/07/2007 1:45:27 AM PST by VOA
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To: RedStateRocker
That's why you build upwards.

A 100-story condo building will house far more people that a 1-story condo building...

...and they'll all get a decent square footage.

(or, if high-rises offend your aesthetic sense, build underground)
34 posted on 02/07/2007 2:34:44 AM PST by gogogodzilla (Republicans only win if they are conservative.)
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To: ex-Texan

Geez. That shack would go for around $30,000 where I live, if that much. I think my garage is bigger than that, and my entire home cost less than half of what that one was selling for and I even have 5 acres of land lol.

35 posted on 02/07/2007 2:56:41 AM PST by KoRn
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To: PERKY2004

"We own a lovely, 2,700 sq ft home in a very nice neighborhood, with a swimming pool, on a 1/4 acre lot."

Good for you. You're living the American dream. Pollls show that 80% of Americans want that American dream - a home, on an acre, with a white picket fence and a garden in back, or some variation such as your home.

You're also in the vanguard of reclaiming our property rights. Many states passed Kelo reform this past election. The more property owners we have, the more property rights people demand. In many areas the smarxist growth purveyors are on the run. We are seeing federal district and state courts re-establishing our property rights.

In Michigan, the state supreme court shot down the state's Kelo land grabs. The court made it known to municipalities that it will not tolerate any land grabs from bureaucrats or thieving politicians.

In Utah, a federal district court ruled that counties are sovereign and the federal government may take no action in those counties without the county government's approval.

We're on a roll thanks to the increasing number of private property owners and have the legal tools to crush the Marxist land grabbers and crooked government manipulators.


36 posted on 02/07/2007 5:34:12 AM PST by sergeantdave (Consider that nearly half the people you pass on the street meet Lenin's definition of useful idiot)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Sounds like Andrew Lam has a bad case of Class Envy. The American Dream has not downsized, it has been redefined by the liberal DBM.

Large cities are "hell holes" and tend to draw all the libs so someone else can foot the bill. More government means less freedom. If he doesn't like the small home he can afford in SF, he can move somewhere else.


37 posted on 02/07/2007 5:52:55 AM PST by Arrowhead1952 (Global warming = A lie told often enough, is eventually accepted as the truth.)
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To: KoRn
Far Flung Exurbs Hit Hard By Housing Downturn

Excerpts:

While the housing downturn has depressed once-thriving real estate markets around the nation, far-flung suburbs of major cities have suffered the most abrupt market correction. * * *

"It's been hard for sellers to comprehend, and I'm usually the bearer of bad news," said Mike Wagner, a real estate broker who works in Loudon.

"The news is: Your home is worth $100,000 less than it was a year and a half ago."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070206/bs_nm/usa_economy_housing_dc;_ylt=As_GMBotUtOlh13kNoP0c6qyBhIF

Graphic proof of this trend is posted here:

Clickity Click Click

38 posted on 02/07/2007 5:54:30 AM PST by ex-Texan (Matthew 7: 1 - 6)
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To: PERKY2004
We own a lovely, 2,700 sq ft home in a very nice neighborhood, with a swimming pool, on a 1/4 acre lot.

Congrats on living the American Dream. The left would say you have MORE than your share of wealth and want to make you live in a shack like they do in the large cities.

We live in a small suburb of Austin, and have a couple more years on our loan. I'd like to pay it off, but the interest rate we got on the 15 yr loan was too good to pass up.

There is no way I could live in a large city again. Been there - done that. The commute is about one hour, but I'll take that over the liberal city government. The wife doesn't work at a paid job, so she stay busy doing housework.

39 posted on 02/07/2007 6:03:45 AM PST by Arrowhead1952 (Global warming = A lie told often enough, is eventually accepted as the truth.)
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To: PERKY2004
It's all about freedom to choose. To some people proximity to the culture of a big city, sports teams, museums, eating at 350 different restaurants a year and access to a lot of different cultures are a thing worth living in a 1000 square foot box. Other people need land, space privacy and are willing to tolerate not having many amenities and/or 'terrible' weather (my mom moved to Montana from the wine country, doesn't mind it a bit, misses the opera and the symphony, though). The more cynical amongst us might even say it's a Good Thing that the vast majority of flaming liberals are concentrated in the most likely terror targets.
40 posted on 02/07/2007 6:48:03 AM PST by RedStateRocker (Nuke Mecca, Deport all illegals, abolish the IRS, ATF and DEA)
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