The idea of American suburbs is that everyone (read: settlers) will live like royalty. You will have your own horse and buggy (SUV), and you will be so wealthy that your land is simply used to grow grass, as a flex. It is a celebration of excess.
The worst thing about lawns is that they are like castles or villas by the sea: luxury goods invented for the exclusive pleasure of a very rich minority, and which in conception and nature were never intended for the people.
As soon as a person/consumer acquires a lawn, their demand for lawns jumps to a higher level, and the more of other people's lawns that are around, the more diluted the value of one's own lawn becomes; the economy functionally cannot meet the demand for people having a lawn.
The idea of American suburbs is that everyone (read: settlers) will live like royalty. You will have your own horse and buggy (SUV), and you will be so wealthy that your land is simply used to grow grass, as a flex. It is a celebration of excess.
Such a good essay.
https://unevenearth.org/2018/08/the-social-ideology-of-the-motorcar/
As soon as a person/consumer acquires a lawn, their demand for lawns jumps to a higher level, and the more of other people's lawns that are around, the more diluted the value of one's own lawn becomes; the economy functionally cannot meet the demand for people having a lawn.
Begun, the lawn wars have.
God I remember my uncle's lawn-feud with his neighbor, them constantly trying to one-up each other with nicer lawns. Pathetic.