And cursed with a terrible housing market, especially for newcomers.

>Public spaces are so incredibly important, but I don't imagine the political class as people who go to parks a lot.

So much this on both fronts. In many countries, like Austria and others I'm sure, the political class really has neglected public spaces that aren't for tourists, as they're not the users of it. Public parks have mostly been relegated as places for the "poor" and "working class" to hang out who can't afford a house in the green suburbs with a nice big garden surrounded by forests. Which is ironic since the rich kids are always driving their cars from their suburbs to the parks downtown to hang out as that's where the best parties are. :)

That isn't exactly unique to Berlin you know. And IIRC at least the local government tried to do something about it (but was struck down in higher courts).

Contrast (any city in) Australia which is stuck in a nightmare loop of homelessness and political pressure to keep the house prices high (from homeowners) and affordable (from everyone else).

Or London, where house prices are now so high it is mostly owned by absent foreigners.

Sorry, but trying an obviously populist measure that further sinks housing availability and makes thing worse for everyone does not get you any points anywhere.

The key point that Berlin seems to realise, but Australia definitely doesn't, is that the purpose of houses is for people to live in them, not make money investing in them.

I know! I help people settle in Berlin, and I don't know what to tell incoming students anymore. I'm not sure how they can find a place to live in a reasonable time frame.

I hear that it's worse elsewhere, but it's no consolation.

Out of curiosity where is it worse? What if it's like the "grass is greener" effect but in reverse, where people use the "it's worse elsewhere" argument to comfort themselves for their bad living conditions or other discomforts in life.

If not, consider that the best minds in the 50 and 60 were considering subtle form of propaganda and manipalution by intelligent and adapted design of environment.

Outside conscious detection, the human herd in urban envIronment are manipulated, nudged, and controlled the same way cattle are milked in modern factories.

Those parks you seems to worship are just existing in your environment cause someone decided that you should worship those parks in your environment.

The remaining question is: for what ?

I would guess, happy and voluntary self alienation.

Nobody question the paradoxal stupidity of feeling lonely in the most dense areas existing on the surface of earth.

How can you feel lonely when you have more than a thousand peoples surrounding you in a range smaller than 100m away from you.

Parks are there so you can have a breather. There's no propaganda written on the trees, in the grass or in the sky.

You know, happy healthy people are good for the economy. That's all.

If a conspiracy is so nebulous that you can't define it's motives, perhaps you're grasping at straws.