From: steve365@btinternet.com
Date: Wed May 29 2002 - 05:21:53 MDT
Michael Butler wrote
>
> I would guess that it's a sociological question of considerable significance.
> "Energy flux density" is one (probably flawed) notion I sometimes think in
> terms of. Another big thing is that in a big city one is much less likely to
> be asking oneself "What will [people|everyone] think?"
>
> A deep ponderable is the definition of "pleasant".
>
> Or were you being sarcastic?
No, not at all. This is something that both puzzles and interests me. I can understand very easily why people in general would chose to live in the city rather than the countryside, given the chance (I have written about this). As I said in my reply to Cheshire, I'm definitely a town mouse not a country one. What I don't fully understand is the situation where given the choice between low cost and high cost cities there is such a strong pull towards the latter. You would expect people to start responding to the price signals after a while, given that the advantages of the high cost area do not appear to be that substantial, but this doesn't seem to be happening, quite the contrary in fact. I do think that the divide between large metropolitan cities and small town rural areas is one of the most important keys to understanding much of modern politics so maybe there is some non-monetised dynamic that is reflected in lack of response to certain price signals.
Steve Davies
> steve wrote:
> >
> > Very interesting. If it is so cheap and generally pleasant to live in small
> > town/rural America (as I'm sure it is) then why do people pay to live in
> > Silicon Valley etc? Is it just that all of the jobs are in the high cost
> > metropolitan areas? Or is there some other reason? You can see the same
> > phenomenon here in Europe. The French are abandoning the countryside and
> > small towns (very beautiful, fantastic quality of life) to live in mass
> > suburbia around Paris and Marseilles. Here in Britain London is like Silicon
> > Valley - a house like the one I live in (4 bedrooms, £50 thousand) would
> > cost £500 thousand in many areas. I just don't understand:)
> >
> > Steve Davies
> --
> butler a t comp - lib . o r g
> I am not here to have an argument. I am here as part of a civilization.
> Sometimes I forget.
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