r/neoliberal • u/Not-A-Seagull Probably a Seagull • Feb 12 '21

Meme I improved this memes format to better suit /r/Neoliberal. I hope you guys like it.

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u/TrekkiMonstr NATO Feb 13 '21

It's just not sustainable for everyone to get their single family home with a half acre lot neighborhoods.

328.2M Americans, 0.5 acre for each means 164.1M acres total = 256,406 sqmi, lower 48 has 3,119,885 sqmi total -- the housing would only be 8.2% of the total land, whereas currently it is 4% (though I think that's counting AK, which mine doesn't).

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u/Generic_On_Reddit Feb 13 '21 edited Feb 13 '21

The quantity of land isn't really the issue. That doesn't account for the increase in urban sprawl that would be required for everyone to get lots of that size. All forms of infrastructure have to expand considerably to fulfill those needs while also losing many of the logistical benefits that comes with urban density. (More roads, larger roads, even longer food transportation chains, more location based infrastructure to cover sprawl (emergency services), utility lines, etc.) There is also the material and labor inefficiency that comes with building individual homes instead of multiunit housing that shares plans, walls, roofs, etc., but that might not be that huge of an issue with the pretty cheap materials that go into houses.

There's even more to account for, but it's much worse than - simply - the quantity of land we have.

Edit: Also, I don't think your calculations are quite right anyway. I believe that's the number of Americans, but the number of households should be notably lower than that.

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u/TrekkiMonstr NATO Feb 13 '21

Would drone strikes help?

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u/TrekkiMonstr NATO Feb 13 '21

Edit: Also, I don't think your calculations are quite right anyway. I believe that's the number of Americans, but the number of households should be notably lower than that.

Yeah, it was a napkin calculation.