McMansions --- are --- bad?

Rod Adams has left a new comment on your post "I guess so, but":

Ben:

I am not so sure about our dominance. We certainly spend a lot more money that anyone else, but what we often get for that money is more fancy offices in the Washington DC metropolitan area, larger McMansions in McLean, and bigger/more expensive imported cars in the parking garages near K street.

When it costs us a quarter of a billion for an airplane and China a few million, the measure of budget expenditures on defense mean little. Do not discount the manufacturing ability of the Chinese - they have rapidly moved up the technological chain from textiles to iPods, PCs and flat screen TVs. (Those, by the way, include the most important components of many weapons systems.)

BTW - it is nice to read the blog of another modest thinker, even if we disagree on some aspects of current politics.

Ben's response:

Rod seems like quite a good sort and he uses his own name, which I like.

But I don't have much problem --- any problem --- with large suburban homes, where familes can have 3-4-5 children if they so desire.

As for China: Notwithstanding significant material progress, it is still essentially a peasant society, with coerced low fertilty which will lead to a massive shortfall of any pension benefits.

As an autocracy (at best) it is politically unstable. ("Wood bends --- plastic breaks.")

If you're looking for peasant countries to invest in, bet on India, not China.