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Comment by rayiner | Hacker News Reader

But if consumption capacity was equal in Europe, that consumption would shift to something else, such as food and entertainment. People in New York City don’t consume less because they don’t own a car—they spend more money eating out, etc.

And Europeans are hardly ascetics. It’s fair to assume that in both places, if people had more means to consume they would.

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> "But if consumption capacity was equal in Europe, that consumption would shift to something else, such as food and entertainment."

Yes. But my point is that not all consumption can be considered equal in terms of the wellbeing and quality of life that it provides.

For example, if I was spending $5000 per year on car payments and fuel for my commute to work, that's a lot of 'consumption'. But it isn't something that makes me happy or feel fulfilled.

On the other hand, suppose I live in a city where I can walk, cycle, or ride a tram to work. My quality of life might be equal or better - yet I'm consuming $5000 less.

Americans could live in a city where they walk, cycle, or ride a tram to work. For the most part, they don’t want to. They used to have such cities, but they ripped up the tram lines and put in freeways. (Part of that is because most of the US is quite unpleasant to walk or cycle in from a weather point of view. The average high in Amsterdam, a famous cycling city, tops out at 72 degrees. In Atlanta, it’s 80+ from May through September.)

Napoleon had the same problem with his soldiers, and solved it with lots of sycamores. Atlanta could put some temporary structures to give shadow also.

Napoleon never set foot within a thousand kilometers of a similar climate, the closest he came was in exile.

The humidity is the main attraction to the show and cares little for shade, peachtree, sycamore or otherwise.

Can't be worse than Egypt or Siria. In any case is just an idea. If there is humidity terraform Atlanta would be much easier.

Oh, you're right, I'll just go and install a tram line now.

1950s technocrats didn't want to. Ripping up trams and putting in freeways was usually done in spite of public protest.

> It’s fair to assume that in both places, if people had more means to consume they would.

Not the parent commenter but why do you think they would if they could?

Consumption habits across borders aren't as obvious to me because of advertising, culture, etc.

Consumption habits don’t vary that much in the developed world. The household savings rate is 5-10% in most countries, with the US being lower than famously frugal Germany, but higher than Italy or Spain: https://www.gfmag.com/global-data/economic-data/916lqg-house.... (Switzerland and Luxembourg being heavily financialized countries seem to be outliers.)

I don't want to consume more, I want to consume less, because it's better for the environment.

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