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Comment by Lammy | Hacker News Reader

“McMansion” is just a way for The System to shame the middle class for daring to want some space to live in, and I'm disappointed when I see anyone propagate it.

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Love this wellspring of concern for people buying shitty houses. Feels completely organic.

No one middle class is buying humongous houses with more rarely used bathrooms than the average house has bedrooms. These houses are for the top 10% earners of their respective localities.

Not at all. It's a way to shame the (upper) middle class for wanting some space that looks pretentious, and doing it badly.

This. There's a reason why they almost always put the triple-car garage out in front as the most prominent architectural aspect: "Hey, look how many cars I can have."

Better than "McMansion" even is "Faux Chateaux"

(Having a big spacious home is not something I'd safely criticize as I have 6 acres and a house a bit too big for the family. The simultaneously ostentatious and ... ugly... yeah)

It's often other reasons, usually because the house is designed with a single garage and there's an "upgrade" button available.

It also makes the house fit on a smaller lot if the driveway is straight to the road.

Most if not all McMansions are builder's specials designed to be sold and upsold; often if you go to the builder's site you discover that the lowest end version of it actually looks pretty sane, all things considered.

Uhh, these are not humble middle class homes. These are the definition of American excess and the perpetual "me, me, me" attitude that sees an f250 with 5 feet of ass hanging outside the standard parking space giving everyone else a hard time. And of course they are basically also built by George Bluth, so all this material expenditure is going towards a terrible product that is already falling apart the day after the contractors are done with it.

> Uhh, these are not humble middle class homes.

You misunderstand; the target audience for ”McMansion Hell” is not the people living in a ”McMansion” but those who have less than that and would aspire to more.

A lot of folks would like to think that but as with most forms of conspicuous consumption not everyone with the means thinks it's a signal of success. Upper middle class households skating the rim of bankruptcy to keep pace with their neighbors is so common it's become a cliche.

Thank you. My aunt bought one of these things some years ago and was desperately offended when I pointed out here kitchen (in both dimensions and decor) strongly resembled the interior of a Panera Bread Co. If that isn't pointless excess I don't know what is.

Nah, they’re shitty, wasteful, and grandiose. They _are_ the system.

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