How Type of Accommodation You Live in Affects Mentality

 

People who own their own detached home with a plot of land tend to vote conservative. One reason for that is that they are more well off than those who live elsewhere. However, there is more to it than just that. 

A house with a plot of land is a microcosm of conservative individual responsibility reality. This reality leads to conservative mindset of those who live like that.

Reality of living in a home is fundamentally conservative. Why? Because you have entire home entirely for yourself and have great deal of control over it. It's your home, it's your lawn, stuff in your home and on your lawn is also yours. Your lawn has a fixed size and have a fence around it to divide it from your neighbors' lawn. You do whatever you want on your plot, your neighbor on his. Simple.

This mindset created by this homeownership reality is then applied to other things. For homeowners it's only natural that business owners should run their business as they see fit. Foreign countries should run their societies as they see fit. And so on. Various arguments on why this or that is not fair simply crash against this this ironclad logic of my vs others territory. 

People like this do not like "big government" interfering with their homes for this simple my territory reason. Of course, reality is that electricity, water and other utilities are provided by the government or big companies out there. Without these things life in such a detached home would be nigh impossible. However, these things are invisible, so homeowners underestimate the government's irreplaceable role in what they have.

In contrast to that there is an apartment block. In apartment blocks everyone is more visibly connected to the system. Sure, you still have your own space, you can lock with the key. However, place has common lawn if any, common entrance, stairs, lifts and so on. If any of that is in poor shape or repair, it affects everyone.

However, apartment block is not your house where you can fix it yourself. Fixing lifts for example needs technical knowledge. You have to report broken lift to someone and hope they will fix it. Same with lawns and other public spaces. Shaping lawn to your liking or corridor is pointless as others are free to use it as they see fit. All you have is just the apartment, the rest is under common control.

In apartment block it's as clear as day that there are a lot of things beyond your control. However, if they are beyond your control, then who should control them. Most will think that it's unfair that some managers or owners would run it as they see fit. Instead, they would think that everyone who lives there should have a say in building's management.

This produces a more collectivist left wing mindset. You do not think that building managers should be free to run their apartment as they see fit like a homeowner would. Instead, you think that building management should answer to and be accountable to the people who live in the apartment block.

Just as you think that about your apartment block, you also think this way of other things such as government and business. After all both government and business do things that affect everyone. Because of that they should be accountable to everyone.

Homeownership produces individual responsibility as well. After all your lawn and your home is as good as much care you put in it. If you mow the lawn, its clean and pleasant. If you do not, its overgrown and messy. You have what you do, work hard and get result or do nothing and get nothing. Reality of homeownership makes this principle true.

However, it does not work this way in the apartment block. Your lift and stairs are shitty because you drank neighbor peed in there when he was drunk and vomited there as well. Even if you clean it yourself, he will just do it again next weekend. Not to mention why you should clean something that is not yours and that everyone else uses as well. A reality of powerlessness. You can only hope or petition that building management will do something about it. By extension this reality produces a mentality of expectations from the government. After all, just like only building management can fix lifts, only government can fix the country.

In this dichotomy renting fundamentally works even worse than apartment block. Even if you rent an entire house for yourself, if not your house and you have not vested interest in improving it or even keeping it in good repair. Landlords still control what you can or cannot do with their property. Its maybe a house, but it's not your house. 

In a way it's even more powerless than owning an apartment as in apartment block there is at least a space you actually own.

Renting produce transience and indifference as you will be elsewhere in short time and what happens here does not matter. Grab something good, while you can, use it and move on. It makes you think in short term benefits as short term is all you have.

In contrast homeownership makes you think long term. Every improvement you make to your home are there to stay for good after all.

There are also hotels and caravans, but I will not analyze these, at least not now.

Some might say that you choose where you live. However, if your neighborhood looks like that, there is not that much choice there.

As our population increases, more and more people will live in apartment blocks and not in detached homes with plot of land. Our governance and mindset should also adapt to this reality. 

Politicians too should increasingly live in apartment blocks to better understand this reality. It's not enough to simply live in the neighborhood, they should live like majority lives.