We're Too Cheap

As you may know, Uncle Bubba travels around America quite often and in doing so, something jumps out at him time and again. No, not deer. It's the glaring contrast in the quality of building through the ages. He mentions this because the phenomenon is in accord with the steady decline in our American ethos. As y'all may know, he has been rambling through the farmlands in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania recently and around every turn, history abounds. After all, this is not far from where our country was governed prior to the establishment of Washington. The landscape is studded with old yet meticulously maintained stone houses, many predate our constitution.

They were built by people with ancient (European) values that understood that a job wasn't worth doing if it wasn't done to the highest standard. They didn't need to be told how to build a structure, the homes and barns predate building codes. So could a case be made that with the increase in laws a correlating decrease occurs in individual deference? Bubbie apologized for digressing from his discourse. But the two neighboring properties in photos below are an example of what Uncle Bubba was pointing out. In the foreground is a modern wood framed, vinyl sided, aluminum clad complex. It was built cheaply with inferior materials. Do y'all reckon that it will hold up over time like the pristine, Italianate style structure on the hill in the background?

In Bubbie's view, we can never go back. Look out your window; like the architecture that we so easily look past, America is on a new course with new principles. We need to consider where these principles come from as well as our individual participation and legacy.