Americans tear down houses a lot more often than Russians and former Soviet client nations do. The housing sector in the US represents an oversized % of its GDP. In fact there are a number of sectors (health care/insurance, housing, military, VA) that are super gigantic compared to even a well off OECD country that, if sized down to a more "normal" level, would turn America into just another average OECD country. Something that might be really great for a number of reasons.