Who exactly needs 7,000 square feet to live?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people are into big houses. Some people are into cars. Some people are into clothes, handbags, or other status symbols. Some people are into food. Some people are into vacations. Why judge?

Because it is horrific for the environment. It's terrible use of land. It requires massive amounts of energy waste. There are no redeeming values for conspicuous consumption.

We wanted a new build in a specific neighborhood. They didn’t build anything smaller than our 6,800 sq ft house. We have the money to buy what we wanted so we did. New homes don’t waste a huge amount of energy because they are built to be more energy efficient. Analysis from EIA's most recent Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) shows that U.S. homes built in 2000 and later consume only 2% more energy on average than homes built prior to 2000, despite being on average 30% larger. Also, “it’s a waste of land” is your opinion, not based in truth. Did you just wander over from the Missing Middle thread? You sound jealous.

This argument is hilarious. Let's assume that the average house built pre-2000 is ~2000 sq ft. A house 30% larger than that comes out to ~2600 sq ft. That's not the size house we are talking about... we are talking about houses on the order of 7000 sq ft. If you do the math, you will find that that 7000 sq ft house is using 2.74 times as much energy as the "old, inefficient" 2000 sq ft house. So yeah, your new house is more energy efficient. It is still using multiple times the energy of the older house to house the same number (or fewer) people. Happy that you are happy, but don't pretend that your decisions are harmless. They aren't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Who exactly needs 7,000 square feet to live?

Virtually everyone -- probably even Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk at some point -- has had the experience of seeing some luxury product that's beyond one's reach and after a second of eye-popping, concluding "eh, that really wouldn't work for me anyway" (where would I keep a hundred-foot yacht?). But it takes a special kind of stunted emotional intelligence -- so depressingly prevalent here on DCUM -- to start an irate thread demanding "What kind of person would want that anyway?!" Your own preferences aren't universal. And in most cases, they aren't any 'better' or more virtuous than other people's, much as you may have convinced yourself otherwise.

“It takes a SPECIAL kind of stunted EI that is PREVALENT”

Those words don’t mean what you think they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people are into big houses. Some people are into cars. Some people are into clothes, handbags, or other status symbols. Some people are into food. Some people are into vacations. Why judge?

Because it is horrific for the environment. It's terrible use of land. It requires massive amounts of energy waste. There are no redeeming values for conspicuous consumption.

We wanted a new build in a specific neighborhood. They didn’t build anything smaller than our 6,800 sq ft house. We have the money to buy what we wanted so we did. New homes don’t waste a huge amount of energy because they are built to be more energy efficient. Analysis from EIA's most recent Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) shows that U.S. homes built in 2000 and later consume only 2% more energy on average than homes built prior to 2000, despite being on average 30% larger. Also, “it’s a waste of land” is your opinion, not based in truth. Did you just wander over from the Missing Middle thread? You sound jealous.

This argument is hilarious. Let's assume that the average house built pre-2000 is ~2000 sq ft. A house 30% larger than that comes out to ~2600 sq ft. That's not the size house we are talking about... we are talking about houses on the order of 7000 sq ft. If you do the math, you will find that that 7000 sq ft house is using 2.74 times as much energy as the "old, inefficient" 2000 sq ft house. So yeah, your new house is more energy efficient. It is still using multiple times the energy of the older house to house the same number (or fewer) people. Happy that you are happy, but don't pretend that your decisions are harmless. They aren't.

You really don't understand how much more energy efficient new houses are, even huge new ones. You're just coming up (making up) with excuses because you hate big houses for some reason. I don't care for huge new houses, they're not for me, but I'm not silly about them either.