So - what do we do about economic growth?

[Raphael]

Probably. Was there some epoch before Sturgeon's Law was passed?

I do think some cities are prettier than others. But past glories weren't always appreciated at the time, because people thought real elegance had disappeared 300 years previous. Plus, the ugliest old buildings have been torn down and all the horse shit removed.

Sentiments have evolved. Here in France everybody, and especially the tourists, loves the quaint renaissance/medieval neighborhoods, small towns and villages. But go back a century of so and almost everybody thought they were gloomy and unsanitary.

And keep in mind that the buildings whom many people these days see basically as the worst places to live in the richer parts of the world - those concrete towers filled with apartments for poor people - were originally meant to be architectural utopias.

[Ares Land]

And keep in mind that the buildings whom many people these days see basically as the worst places to live in the richer parts of the world - those concrete towers filled with apartments for poor people - were originally meant to be architectural utopias.

Absolutely... Though judging from contemporary remarks, people found them awful back then too! It seems the utopia was mainly in the eyes of the architect.

(If anything, things turned out better than people feared. I used to live in what's probably the ugliest tower in Paris. It was far from utopian, but the building had its good points.)

[WeepingElf]

And keep in mind that the buildings whom many people these days see basically as the worst places to live in the richer parts of the world - those concrete towers filled with apartments for poor people - were originally meant to be architectural utopias.

Absolutely... Though judging from contemporary remarks, people found them awful back then too! It seems the utopia was mainly in the eyes of the architect.

(If anything, things turned out better than people feared. I used to live in what's probably the ugliest tower in Paris. It was far from utopian, but the building had its good points.)

In East Germany at least, they were very popular, but that was because they were pretty much the only kind of residence available to common people that offered modern comfort - no detached homes, no modernized prewar developments. And even in West Germany, they were the most attractive kind of housing affordable to low-income households because detached homes were expensive and most prewar developments weren't modernized yet.

[Nortaneous]

Older cities are better in the US because they're from before we forgot how to make cities. Everything in Northern Virginia is post-1950 and rich. It's atrocious. How much of the appeal of degrowth is that economic growth has outstripped good taste?

The degrowth movement is more of a left-wing, even far-left thing and that's more of a conservative sentiment. So not as such. But there is some interest in degrowth in some conservative circles.

I said Boston is a better place to live than Loudoun County. That's the furthest thing from a conservative sentiment that the English language can express.