Off topic: How much time people spend in public laundry? In post Soviet countries and Russia almost all families, even poorest have washing machines, while public laundry used only for complex cleaning.
A functional, used washer can be had for $100 in most places, which shouldn't be a huge barrier to most people (especially people who can afford a videogame console). Small apartments don't have washers because they simply don't have the room.
I haven't seen a single London or Edinburgh flat (which on average will be much smaller than the US ones - even Manhattan) that hasn't had a washing machine in. One of my friends flat was incredibly small but still managed one.
Definitely some weird cultural thing that people rent flats without them. You wouldn't be able to do that in the UK.
This has sorta changed since I sometimes use those laundry-cleaning startups, but I definitely don't have a laundry machine in my apartment in Manhattan. There's a laundry room in the basement of my building, but that's been non-functional for about a month, so I sometimes trek a block to the laundromat for my regular laundry.
