An example: Dr. Phil's mansion is the opposite of minimalist.

‘Luxury’ House Owned By Dr. Phil Is For Sale And People Are Finding Lots Of Things Very Wrong With Its Design

What the real estate listing euphemistically describes as “eclectic finishes” inside truly do not disappoint.

I think the freaking out has lowered the bar. Trump would have had to soil himself to lose the 1st one because no one expects coherence from him. On the other hand, Biden's path to victory next time is "having a normal one." Pretty sure this was even a West Wing subplot at one point.

The term itself hasn't changed it's just being used for marketing purposes out of band. I worked on a number of 8-figure houses and there are indeed a lot of crazy appointments. I had a client put in a suede floor, for example. Yes, it was awful. So were they.

There's a lot of survivorship bias here- a poorly built house from 1880 fell over before 1950 while a cathedral from 1500 is effectively immortal. There are houses being built now that will last 100 years but they aren't being built by Toll Bros.

More expensive marques have been emphasizing physical controls. The high end ones emphasize hand-polished physical controls.

A quibble: you're comparing a bespoke mansion to spec mansions. The 1886 reflected the tastes of the owner, the 2024 monstrosities are designed to appeal to those with no taste. The luxury you seek, by your definition, is not advertised to prospective buyers as it has already been bought & paid for.

An acquired taste that few people acquire

The Austrian economists are more than that- they were shamed out of Europe for revanchist elitism but pushed hard by American business interests to roll back the New Deal. And they've run the American economy since Nixon.

Conservatives play follow the leader while liberals play king of the hill. It's awful right now because the conservative leader is historically awful so everything they do is awful. But once he's done, they'll have to stop encouraging the worst or they'll simply go extinct. They'll be back someday.

Polling RFK in a three way head to head when he foesnt have ballot access in most of the swing states is malpractice