[yongjik]

> I know what Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans who live in miniscule tower apartments do once they get money. (they buy an SUV or wagon and move to an American-style suburb)

No they don't. I may not know a lot about families, but I know a thing or two about Korea, and the one thing I know is that they overwhelmingly stay in apartments. When they get money, the move to bigger, fancier apartments.

...which casts doubt on your other confident assertions.

[tomashubelbauer]

Isn't the principle still the same? Koreans moving into bigger, fancies apartments to make sure they put more distance and barriers between them and people they don't want to meet. Fancier apartments guarantee a building with reception that can take your packages so you don't have to talk to delivery people. Bigger apartments means people in the building are more spread out so the noise they make is more spread out and as a result dampened. They might not be moving to literal houses, but they are isolating themselves to the same end.

[maxglute]

Distinction is suburban vs urban isolation. Making family residencial space more comfy =/= retreating to single family unit outside urban areas op described. Many east asians still try to knit together multigenerational arrangements if they can afford it, i.e. having extended families live in units of same apartment complexes. I mean granted you can do that in suburbs too, but objection with ops claim is people with money don't default to big private spaces in burbs... especially in dense countries with urban areas where it's PIA to get into city. In which case it's better to stay in city but get nicer spaces. Those with resources will coordinate so family is close. It's not communal housing arrangement but it facilitates communal child rearing. Of course if you have absolute fuck off amount of money you buy a penthouse or mansion depending on lifestyle preference and pay someone else to raise the kids.

[yongjik]

Of course wealthy people, whether they're Korean or American, buy and live in bigger houses. No surprises there. But that's a pretty weak argument to support my parent comment, which reads less like "people love big houses" and more like an anti-urban-density pro-SUV rant.