Yes, that standard American rebuttal. We have better houses than in a favela. We have better health care than Eritrea. Our transportation is better than Kazakhstan … oh shoot, wait, they have more high speed rail than the USA. Scratch that.

I’ve lived in Japan and their housing is far superior. It is newer in general, well-built, quiet, warm, efficient, comfortable, functional, and cheap. American housing stock is none of those things, at twice the price.

> I’ve lived in Japan and their housing is far superior. It is newer in general, well-built, quiet, warm, efficient, comfortable, functional, and cheap. American housing stock is none of those things, at twice the price.

Don't houses in Japan only last 20-30 years? Isn't the only reason they're newer in general that they have to be rebuilt so often? Houses in America last way longer than twice that, so only paying twice as much seems like a bargain in comparison.

Japanese houses usually lasts at least 40 years unless serious disaster (not earthquake, but like heavy typhoon or tsunami), maybe over 60 years if properly maintenanced. Any house won't last 20 years must be blamed. But just people may don't want to live in 40 years used old house but want only the land.

When you say that they "last longer" what you mean is that Americans are tolerating the deterioration for longer. Yes, the median American dwelling is 40 years old. No, that's not because they are built to last. Only someone with zero experience abroad thinks a 1980-model American house was built well.

Seems like someone just can’t admit they’re wrong.

Then you didn’t really understand how Japan’s houses are built. They’re not built to last at all because new homebuyers buy the property and tear down the house and build a new one. Knowing that, home builders only build them to last 10-20 years and house maintenance is an after thought to most people. Contrast that with American homes, where you can homes in Detroit and Chicago and Boston and thousands of other towns that have been continually lived in for over 100 years. But feel free to keep ranting about things you don’t know about.

And to address your other anti-American points…the world’s rich come here for health care, and it’s the best in the world for cutting edge care. Our highway system is one of the best in the world and we don’t care about high speed rail because of that. Your heavy biases can’t really cover up the facts.

What's your source?