I certainly agree with the idea that a fairly large amount of private indoor/outdoor space is conducive to happiness and mental health. The tendency of central planners to want everybody to live in a small space and commute by public transport in the name of "efficiency" and "the environment" is depressing. Let's all have half an acre of land, a nice car, and a properly planned road system so we can all get from A to B without running into too much traffic. (Of course you'd want walkable town/city centres as well.)<p>I don't think we need to centrally plan our society to make people happy, we just have to stop getting in the way of letting people have what they want.