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Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 6, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Pretty much everywhere I go, modern housing is appalling. Buildings thrown together; decorative panels falling off new-built apartments; concrete slabs rush-poured and not given proper time to cure; residential towers that catch fire or crack so badly they become uninhabitable; just enough lighting that you can photograph it for a real estate listing, but not enough to actually live in it; cupboards shallower than the width of a single mug; I could go on. It is not clear to me that we know how to build things any more.

You should compare equivalent-cost housing (in work hours or at least in inflation-adjusted cost), not worst currently available to best preserved ones.

Are you doing this?