Greed isn't the product. Greed is an inherent human characteristic (we'd all like a bigger house, more luxurious holidays, nicer car etc). The genius of Capitalism is that it channels greed to foster innovation, resulting in better and/or cheaper products, raising living standards.
Greed is an inherent evolutionary characteristic (non-greedy species had an unexpected appointment with extinction).
Social species may have charity within the in-group, but are still fundamentally greedy against the out-group.
Collaborative communities can only exist so long as all its members abide by the social agreement, and there's a scaling limit on how far you can maintain a consistent social agreement.
The Royal Mail and the Post Office are not the same thing! They are completely separate businesses. The Fujitsu/sub-post master scandal has nothing to do with the Royal Mail.
Well, for life to emerge you likely need some kind of liquid medium/solvent to enable chemicals to move around and interact with each other. It's hard to imagine how that could happen in a solid/frozen environment.
So, assuming a liquid solvent as a basic requirement, the next question is, what sort? There are other options beyond water, but water actually some unique properties that make it a potentially ideal medium - not least it's less dense when frozen. This meant the seas in early earth never completely froze, with liquid water remaining under the surface. If ice was heavy than water, then ice would sink, the oceans would likely have completely frozen, and no life would have evolved.
Ice is a really interesting material in a number of ways--especially in conjunction with liquid water. I worked in a very different area that he was also researching at the time but my thesis advisor went on to create an ice lab and was probably one of the world experts on ice. (The US Army, especially in the 80s, was very interested in all sorts of things about cold regions--for obvious reasons.)
I skimmed it, so maybe i missed it, but, i don't think i saw it mentioned anywhere - but interest rates the last 10 years have been at record lows, and even with the recent increases are still low vs the long term history. This is a material driver of price increases. Other effects are, as he mentions, but fails to make the link, its now common to have two earners per home, again increasing purchasing power. And finally, the cost of other expenses, proportional to salaries, has decreased enormously - food, clothing, leaving more money available for housing.
I don't think the parent meant the cost of the actual appliances, but designing a house to accommodate them - the power, plumbing, ventilation, fire & smoke prevention and detection etc
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