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.
it’s even worse. the front yards are totally open, no fence or hedge, so they’re 100% unusable. i’ll never understand why americans dont put a fence across their front yard.
unless it’s to hide the fact that the public land their roads are on arent wide enough to have a reasonable sized road and on both sides, a verge of trees, a sidewalk and another verge of trees (this could be in the private front yards of the houses).
I know but it just boggles my fucking mind.
Suburb brain comes from an old
tradition of flexing on the poors by having land that was not used to grow food. I am not kidding. That was the flex.
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.
I think it was first (or at least equally) a flex by
, and quickly spread from there.
yeah but oaks dont grow food either, they could plant oaks. they’re trees. they’re amazing. more trees.
it would provide shade in the summer, lowering the AC bills. for fuck’s sake.
Acorns are edible!
even when any other food is available? for people? really? i guess…
Iirc they were a staple crop for native people in the Americas. I’ve never tried to eat them, though!
I have, I can’t say I would eat them again by choice
Fair enough!
it’s even worse. the front yards are totally open, no fence or hedge, so they’re 100% unusable. i’ll never understand why americans dont put a fence across their front yard.
unless it’s to hide the fact that the public land their roads are on arent wide enough to have a reasonable sized road and on both sides, a verge of trees, a sidewalk and another verge of trees (this could be in the private front yards of the houses).
It’s often against city code to put a fence into your front yard.
Which is, of course, stupid.
Landlords don’t like pets, put a fence around a rental property and your asking for a renter to find a dog to keep in the fenced area.
THE HORROR