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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   30108 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 12, 2024

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Even for conduit, the software concept of You Ain't Gonna Need It probably applies at scale -- depends on your assumptions as to adoption of course, but I'll be that the total cost of putting this everywhere is around the same OOM as the extra cost that would have been incurred by (say) spec-home buyers who end up using it.

Sort of a form of income transfer from low-end homebuyers who really want a low-end home to midrange folks who do end up upgrading things later.

You Ain't Gonna Need It

This has always been a far too broad reactionary argument to tamper a tendency that goes too far. The wise engineer knows that there is a very small target of just enough helping yourself in the future without hindering yourself in the present. And I've only seen people develop a good sense of it through experience.

At some point it gets complicated and we can split hairs. Are unit prices elastic to cost or primarily to demand? For the most part low end home buyers aren't actually checking things like electrical wiring, they're paying for ft^2 and location.

But the cost of putting conduit in a wall or under a parking lot is negligible. In any house I've renovated, I always run conduit between the major parts of the house, so as to at least be able to run a wire most of the way without cutting open any walls. Panel to the garage, panel to the attic, panel to the basement.

For the most part low end home buyers aren't actually checking things like electrical wiring, they're paying for ft^2 and location.

And the vast majority of them will never need that conduit -- so instead of just paying for sq. ft. and location, now they are paying also for the conduit that guys like you and @IGI-111 (and probably me, TBF) want. The builder doesn't put that stuff there for free.

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