[vecinu]

This comes down to having freedom and experiencing life on 'a ranch and 20 acres'. If you've never experienced life in such a way, it is almost impossible to understand why people live this way.

I for one love having my own washroom and bedroom where I can rest, relax and find silence.

Do you think a family of 4 would find comfort in an apartment?

I'm fairly sure if money were no object and transportation was near instant, myself and most people I know would choose the ranch and 20 acres.

[cmarschner]

I've grown up in a spacious house and am living now on about 800 sq ft with my wife and a baby. That's more than those people in Hong Kong but, given where I am coming from, it is constraint. My wife is coming from a former communist country. There, 60 sq m were regarded enough for a family, and she feels perfectly comfortable in our space. She wouldn't want more. And in fact it does have some merits: I can clean the apartment in an hour. I am forced to throw things out that I don't really need, which makes my life simpler. And since it allows us to live right in the city I don't really need a car. We can do all grocery shopping by foot, and we have all amenities nearby. That's something you'd miss out on a ranch.

[will_work4tears]

I don't live on a ranch, and don't really have any desire to, but let's play devil's advocate.

With a ranch and lots of land, you can grow your own food, raise your own animals and not be tied down to requiring (as much) other people. You don't have to deal with traffic (foot or road), generally anyway, and your neighbors are probably pretty friendly - probably because they don't have to deal with masses of people on a daily basis and aren't stressed out / overly stimulated.

You get the night air, the country views and peace and quiet. That goes a long ways for some people. That is something you don't get in a urban setting.

[eropple]

> You get the night air, the country views and peace and quiet. That goes a long ways for some people. That is something you don't get in a urban setting.

Country views, not so much, but I live in a city on Massachusetts's South Shore and I get fantastic night air and the place is quiet as a grave after about 9PM.

[vecinu]

You've just described why I want to live in a low population area. Thank you.

[thisone]

Of course a family of 4 can be comfortable in an apartment.

Three bedrooms, living area, kitchen, full bathroom with possibly a half bath if it's a larger place.

Why couldn't a family of 4 be comfortable?

[seanp2k2]

Bay Area resident here.

Most families of 4 are living in a 1br if they're lucky. Plenty of families of 10 doing 2brs etc.

Bay Area is seriously a bad choice if you're not in IT or making at least 6 figures combined yearly.

[vecinu]

This is absolutely the truth.

I know folks that make 6 figures yearly and still cannot convince themselves to pay $4000-$5000/month for a 2 bedroom.

[dman]

And I used to think NYC was bad.

[waps]

  I'm fairly sure if money were no object and transportation was near instant, 

It's 2013 ... why can't we have that ? Surely the technology for this exists. I've always had this dream of "turbolifts" from startrek, the ground-based version. They're basically single-wagon trains that can go horizontally and vertically so they function as elevators. So you get in at the end of the hallway (or even the front door of your room) and you step out at work, or in a public station, or ... The big difference is, of course, that it works like a car. You get in whereever and you get out at home, or vice versa. No trains, no swapping cars, no ... Make it cheap by mass producing small cars.

Why can't we build something like that ?

Heh, I've even programmed algorithms for routing these things. There are lots of problems of course, the cars need to be extremely reliable, or you need an extremely flexible mechanical design so you can pick broken ones up from rails. But a comfortable, large, elevator takes up much less space than a car, but of course needs much more infrastructure ... Oh well, dreams ...

[lilsunnybee]

It would also cost an insane amount of money, as well as inevitably only being for the very wealthy. You might make things better for yourself but definitely not all of mankind.

[onlyup]

Talk about taking the discussion in a different direction..