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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   31625 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 9, 2023

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while the reason you want to live in a big city is because of the net benefits (net positive externalities) of living near the other people.

This is overly strong phrasing, imo. I personally find cities hideously uncomfortable and claustrophobic.

Sure. I have no desire to live in New York City, I wouldn’t want to live in a hypothetical New York City where all eight million people are gainfully employed, sober, and mentally healthy, and that doesn’t actually have much bearing on his point. People who want to live in cities generally want to live in cities because they derive some benefit from doing so, often economic or social.

This seems like a totally silly line of argument. People are making the choice rationally, what is a positive to you may be a negative to you and vice versa but one doesn't need to prove the appeal to something people are intentionally doing.

People are making the choice rationally

Some people are. Many people are. Most people are. Sure. I'm just noting that it ought to have another qualifier there. "Living in a big city is a net positive" is not an absolute state. Depending on how you class suburbs, it could well be below 50%.

Me as well, so I don't live in a city.

Me too but the more people who want to live in a dense urban center the fewer will want to crowd whatever rural town I may find to reside.

So do I, but can you really deny the benefits? I chose to live in the countryside and I really do prefer it, but there's hardly a day on which I'm not inconvenienced by all the things the city has that the middle of nowhere does not.

So do I, but can you really deny the benefits?

Yeah, I can. Prices are higher in cities (not just for housing) which eats into the benefit of higher wages, and if you can work remote you can get big city level wages while living in the middle of nowhere. The only real advantage I see to cities is access to a wide variety of stores/food/cultural activities.

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