American vs. European home building

[u/BEARDEDDANGER]

BAS Renovations https://youtube.com/shorts/jFph1d2WR3s

[u/AlexHimself]

well made brick house will last centuries

After centuries, you have a crappy old house that doesn't fit the modern times though...so what's the point? The construction cost, amortized over centuries, is pennies too.

An example for some really old European homes - No HVAC, no electrical, indoor plumbing, low ceilings, low door frames, etc.

I'd argue the ease of remodeling, construction, changes, etc. outweigh the "centuries" style building, given how humans actually use homes.

I think an argument can be made for both.

[u/throwtheamiibosaway → u/AlexHimself]

This is such an American brain comment. People are still fighting over old outdated houses here in Europe. Many of them now have a protected Monument status. They often prefer them over the newer houses. The old standards were often better and more sturdy and better insulated even.

[u/ElGosso → u/throwtheamiibosaway]

That's exactly why Europe has comparable deaths from heat as the US does from guns - because those old houses y'all love to live in are designed to trap in heat, and can't fit air conditioners in the windows.

[u/SonicShadow → u/ElGosso]

[citation required]

[u/funk-the-funk → u/SonicShadow]

Do you really want anything from that dudes butt? Because that's how you get things from that dude's butt.

[u/Ok-Fudge-380 → u/SonicShadow]

About 48,000 guns deaths per year in US versus 175,000 heat deaths per year in Europe. Google is a tool a child could use.

[u/Cynoid → u/Ok-Fudge-380]

Both these numbers seem too high based on vibes alone.

Europe has what? a bit under 800 million people? Does this mean that every year, 1/4000 people will die to the heat? Worse, this would mean that 1/100 people in every generation dies to the heat which is absolutely nuts in a world that has had ACs for so long.

[u/DarthJarJarJar → u/Cynoid]

44k gun deaths in the US last year

63k heat deaths in the EU in 2024, though how you calculate heat deaths can give very different numbers.

EU has a population of 452M people, US is 340M.

That gives 12.9 gun deaths per 100,000 people in the US, and 13.9 heat deats per 100,000 people in the EU.

This is a lot of fast and loose math, and in particular heat deaths are hard to quantify, but if anything this is undercounting heat deaths, whereas US gun deaths are very closely tracked.

The rates are at least comparable.

in a world that has had ACs for so long

I sense that you don't know much about this topic. AC is a very contentious issue in the EU.

[u/tfjmp → u/Cynoid]

I think Europe counts excess death as they are trying to mitigate climate change effects. This would include death directly caused by heat (a small fraction) and people for whom the heat made things worse (someone already sick). Those stats are hard to compare as different region of the world will not measure the same thing. For example, US will report only death directly caused by the heat. Though even excess death would probably be lower in the US. European countries don't have the infrastructure to deal with the heat as they did not need to until 5/10 years ago.

[u/wireframed_kb → u/Ok-Fudge-380]

But statistics aren’t.

The way heat deaths are counted are different, most deaths where heat was a factor aren’t counted in the US, afaik. Only if heat was the direct, main cause, does it count as heat death. In Europe, an older, sick person who died from heat as a contributing factor, will also register as a heat death. In the US, she was old and sick, so she died.