I heard an interview the other day with the president/CEO of a major northeastern ski hill. He said they have had to re-adjust their charlifts over time because of the increasing weight of North Americans. Average weight going up meant having to remove chairs etc. in order to balance them and keep them to safety spec.
Truly a gluttinous civilization. Growing up I never heard anybody complain about the size of their sedans (which were always bigger than the European median anyways.) But trucks and SUVs have taken over the market here. I'm sure most of it is marketing (you _deserve_ all this power and space, and why would you want to be _below_ all the other deserving people on the road?) but I guess some of it is comfort for larger framed bodies these days.
Personally I've never enjoyed driving a truck, and don't own one despite growing up rural and now living on a hobby farm.
Sizes of cars and apartments in Europe grow just the same over time as Europe is getting wealthier. In the most crowded cities there is some pressure for smaller cars as those are easier to park and get through tight spots, but SUVs now are the largest car category in new registrations in Europe, with over a third of the market, and is rapidly growing at around 20% YoY. This will take a while until it becomes very apparent due to large existing fleet, but make no mistake: Europeans like large cars just the same. Similarly, average numbers of square meters per person in Europe also keeps growing and growing over time.
The real reason here is that after subtracting taxes, social security and health insurance premiums in both US and in wealthy European countries, average American simply has much more disposable cash left, even in the poorest US states, than an average Frenchman, Brit or German. People like large houses and large house, and when they can afford those, they tend to buy them.
