>I commented on general ugliness of the US man made landscape - without
>explicitly mentioning the reasons. But if you read my examples you will
>find that these include _institutional_ examples - malls, developer built
>Mac mansions, etc. while I positively commented on the old Victorian era
>architecture.
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>If I were to give an explicit reason - it would be crass commercialism and
>the profit ueber alles mentality of business and government leaders that
>cares only about the bottom line and does not give a shit about anything
>else.
I'd agree with that. It doesn't have much to do with how poor rural folks leave cars and washing machines in their front yards. Though living in a built environment dominated by cost-minimization probably dulls the aesthetic sense of the masses.
Doug