Prison cells in the United States are usually 70 sq ft and include running water, but generally speaking prisons in the US don’t have private cells and its a barrack type situation, so generally amenities like showers, toilets, kitchens, yards, all of that is shared. If you were to look at the military its common for beds to be shared on ships and submarines due to space restrictions.
What I’m getting at is “what is the absolute minimum of personal space that should be considered a human right?” Is it none and we should try to promote communal living spaces or is there an actual number for how much sq ft is a human right? Should everyone have a private toilet/shower/fridge/stove/television/ect?
Is there a line to be drawn on this issue or should no line be drawn? Is personal space something we should be measuring objectively or subjectively?
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That’s more of a poverty issue than a density issue, I do think there is such a thing as too dense, like the Kowloon Walled City (cool but not as fun to live in), slums in third world countries without plumbing or electricity, rooms where there are too many people, etc. I think that standards for density vary from person to person.
The issue is that if we don’t standardize some aspect of what is acceptable living conditions then inhumane things like 100 people sharing a toilet happen. There’s meeting the needs and increasing quality of life. 100 people can share the toilet, it would be efficient if kept clean, people might have to wait to take a shit but it would meet a need. It would be nice to have a personal toilet, it would be reasonable to assume that with proper planning everyone could have one. Maybe in some situations where there is scarcity and poverty that might not be possible and people will have to share. But 100 people sharing a toilet is disgusting. We should at least try to cap how many people use the same toilet.
