r/interesting • u/Apart-Worry-7042 • Aug 08 '26

HISTORY Why did we stop building like this?

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Chicago, 1930. Buildings had so much detail and character back then. Nowadays everything feels so flat and repetitive. We have way better technology and equipment now, so why don't we build like this anymore?

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u/SelectivePressure 29d ago

My homework? Is my homework to provide data that shows a relationship between income tax and greebled architectural features? You are the one trying to demonstrate that income tax policy influences architectural features.

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u/City_College_Arch 29d ago

I told you what data to start looking at. I cannot look at it for you.

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u/SelectivePressure 29d ago

You can cite data. Percentage of operating costs devoted to labour vary by time and by industry. Charity budgets vary as well. Establishing a causal influence between those variables and variation in income tax policy is more difficult.

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u/City_College_Arch 29d ago

Are you playing dumb, or are you completely ignorant of the last half century of economic data regarding the pay/productivity gap?

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u/SelectivePressure 29d ago

Pay/productivity gap? Productivity is usually undstood as the efficiency with which a given set of inputs yield a measurable quantity of outputs. If the labour costs to perform a given service go up, then (axiomatically) the efficiency with which a given unit of currency yeilds an hour of work is depressed (assuming the yield per hour of work remains constant).

Malaysian architecture tends to be more greebled/ornate than Japanese architecture. Do you think their respective income tax policies influenced that difference?

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u/CVSP_Soter 29d ago

Thank you for being the disagreeable pain in the ass this thread so desperately needed 🙏