There is a paradox at the heart of the economic theory of aesthetics:
Looking about at dawn I noticed in the middle distance another house-frame just rising above the tree-tops. Five years ago there were no houses here, only orchards, but now the whole northern slope of the mountain is turning from orchards into a dense suburb. Inevitably, in the process it will be uglified: birds shall be replaced with loud-speakers, orchards – with densely built-up tiny plots which shall be hygienically mowed to Marine crew-cuts. Concrete will replace the greenery. Temperatures will rise and the wind, obstructed by buildings, cease. The land, today still wide open to the foot to wonder whichever way it please, will be cut up and fenced in and made impenetrable and hostile to walkers. Our winding dirt roads will be paved so that a traffic jam of oversized SUVs can comfortably lie in an inefficient snarl. Air quality will decline, silence will be replaced by constant ambient hum punctuated by the boom-chuck of subwoofers and brave karaoke singing at night.
Yet, despite all this, land prices will rise instead of falling. A paradox.
Jan 27, 2009
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