This is my own personal conjecture so take it as you will:
Profits, incomes, and disposable incomes across the board are lower for those not in or above the multi millionaire class. People, businesses, and just general society spent more money on aesthetics
30 years ago. People had more time, money, and energy to utilize designers, artists, and talent. Nowadays it just feels like everything from architecture, to cars, to public infrastructure is just barebones utilitarian. Like, when was the last time you saw a new marble statue go up? When was the last time you saw a new building made in the same style as the city halls/state houses of 100 years ago? When was the last time you saw public art that was intricate and had form over function? When was the last time you saw huge sweeping infrastructure upgrades like third spaces, burying power lines, pedestrian paths, or underground tunnels?
In 150 years, people will look back at this time period and say we were all miserable and poor and couldn’t afford anything outside of necessitation.
Pole here. I love how it goes against what I see here. We were under communist rule for a long time - you know, utilitarianism over all, gray being almost the only acceptable color…although we did have a lot of green spaces. These were fun.
What I am seeing as time progresses is that bleak building style going away and even commie blocks gaining colors. Sadly, some of the green spaces get cut for parking lots…but that’s sadly obvious, back then people simply didn’t have cars so parking spaces weren’t really that big of a thing. Like, what, there was 0,1 parking space per unit? xD
So it’s funny that bleak and bad communist vibes USA propagandised so much against is now slowly coming to america, while leaving countries which were under USSR tyranny. xD
Companies in the US have merged and merged, becoming ever larger. Most industries are dominated by 2 or 3 companies. And private equity firms own a staggering portion of the economy. As these companies become larger and larger, they start behaving more and more like Soviet central planners. Cheap efficiency at all cost. Standardization in all things. Minimum viable product.
Counter - take: this is the natural outcome of Americans’ obsession with simplicity. If you mock every design with character and try to reduce visual noise at all costs you end up with these
This is my own personal conjecture so take it as you will:
Profits, incomes, and disposable incomes across the board are lower for those not in or above the multi millionaire class. People, businesses, and just general society spent more money on aesthetics 30 years ago. People had more time, money, and energy to utilize designers, artists, and talent. Nowadays it just feels like everything from architecture, to cars, to public infrastructure is just barebones utilitarian. Like, when was the last time you saw a new marble statue go up? When was the last time you saw a new building made in the same style as the city halls/state houses of 100 years ago? When was the last time you saw public art that was intricate and had form over function? When was the last time you saw huge sweeping infrastructure upgrades like third spaces, burying power lines, pedestrian paths, or underground tunnels?
In 150 years, people will look back at this time period and say we were all miserable and poor and couldn’t afford anything outside of necessitation.
Pole here. I love how it goes against what I see here. We were under communist rule for a long time - you know, utilitarianism over all, gray being almost the only acceptable color…although we did have a lot of green spaces. These were fun.
What I am seeing as time progresses is that bleak building style going away and even commie blocks gaining colors. Sadly, some of the green spaces get cut for parking lots…but that’s sadly obvious, back then people simply didn’t have cars so parking spaces weren’t really that big of a thing. Like, what, there was 0,1 parking space per unit? xD
So it’s funny that bleak and bad communist vibes USA propagandised so much against is now slowly coming to america, while leaving countries which were under USSR tyranny. xD
Companies in the US have merged and merged, becoming ever larger. Most industries are dominated by 2 or 3 companies. And private equity firms own a staggering portion of the economy. As these companies become larger and larger, they start behaving more and more like Soviet central planners. Cheap efficiency at all cost. Standardization in all things. Minimum viable product.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. We’ve become a centralized economy through weak monopoly enforcement.
Combine that with everyone $500k poorer because the billionaires acquired it. A recipe for depressed, anxious, angry, feed-addicted rats in a cage.
Counter - take: this is the natural outcome of Americans’ obsession with simplicity. If you mock every design with character and try to reduce visual noise at all costs you end up with these