Rethinking the American consumer

Re:Rethinking the American consumer by sangaya on Monday October 05, 2009 @06:25PM (#862968)

Housing costs are not always a necessity. The mean sq. footage of a house in the United State went from 1,655 to 2,215 between 1978 and 2008. Did people develop the necessity for larger and larger houses? Or did they want larger and larger houses?

I'll wager on want over need. American culture is too often focused on coveting what others have, and showing off success through the display of material goods. The one case that can be made for larger houses is the number of persons per household increasing from a mean of 2.67 (1987) to 3.88 (2008). What do you all think?

True, it's harder to cut down the cost after making the mistake of buying more house than can be afforded. Myself and plenty of other Americans instead chose to buy more affordable, if less desirable, houses. For us, a large house is not a necessity. (I live in a 900 sqft condo)

Sources: [http://www.census.gov/const/C25Ann/sftotalmedavgsqft.pdf] [http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2008/tabA...] [http://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/15/us/average-size-of-househo...]

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Re:Rethinking the American consumer by sandrogerbini on Monday October 05, 2009 @06:49PM (#863011)

"American culture is too often focused on coveting what others have, and showing off success through the display of material goods."

Agreed, but its not just American culture that does this. The type of conspicuous consumption you refer to was one of the major ideas behind the economist Thorstein Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class. He claims that it is human nature to emulate those of a higher economic class through wasteful spending. Interesting stuff.

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