In America,
we like things to be new--or to look new.
We love new buildings or new annexes to buildings, or
anything remodeled, renovated, rehabbed--etc. We feel a certain gratification when we can sit in, say, the brand-new quarters of a medical facility. Ask the staff how they like their new digs and they will always respond positively.
We want to rehab, remodel, fix up, maintain, replace,
refurbish, paint, repair, caulk. If something is not completely new, we want it
to look new. We hate decay, deterioration, weathering, peeling, cracking, fading.
I'm sure huge amounts are spent on "home improvement."
Kitchens, especially, must be renovated, maybe even
repeatedly. No one wants to buy a house with a "dated" kitchen--and
that means more than, say, 20 years old. How much money is spent on kitchen remodeling--new appliances (and make them stainless steel!), cabinets, countertops?
(In fairness, I have to point out that there is an opposite trend, which favors the "antique" and the "vintage"--sometimes even the pseudo-old or the merely old-looking. Sometimes this is considered "nostalgia.")
(In fairness, I have to point out that there is an opposite trend, which favors the "antique" and the "vintage"--sometimes even the pseudo-old or the merely old-looking. Sometimes this is considered "nostalgia.")
I don't think this strong attraction to the new is true in all countries. Just to use one
example, I don't think it's true in Italy.
In Italy, lots
of buildings are old, even hundreds of years old. Their owners don't mind if
they look old, so there might be peeling stucco or paint, cracked walls, and so
forth. No big deal.
I'd welcome comments on whether folks "out there" feel
that this characteristic of America/Americans is true elsewhere.
Revised 3/21 and 3/22.
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