You still can. Just look at the Netherlands. In the 60s the Netherlands was a car mecca. It was following American style city design (including actually importing American city designers). They had grand plans to bulldoze poor neighbourhoods to build highways, heck at one point even the IJ in Amsterdam was proposed to be filled with concrete and turned into an inner city mega highway.

Well, there's no need to in the US.

The Netherlands is SMALL....and US is quite large and well, for the most part, if you want to live careless in a dense urban city, we have them and you can move there.

If you don't want this, and to date many if not most in the US do not want it....you can live in other cities were you don't share walls and have the independence of a private vehicle.

If more people in the US actually wanted less cars and "walkable cities"....we'd have them.

We have voters and if the voters wanted that, they'd elect people to help implement it.

Buit just face the facts,most people today do not want that car-less utopia many of you are promoting.

That's because your city is designed wrong.

Walkable cities have always been a thing. Only in America were cities designed around the car.

I can only guess that people like you can't undertake or fathom that a large majority of people out here, ENJOY our lifestyle and the city designs and types that support them....eh?

I do NOT want to ever live in a heavy urban city where I have to share walls, and depend on public transport and their schedules and shoehorn my life into someone else's timetable....

You do you.....in the US, at least, it is a large and diversified area....you can find cities that cater to your needs and likings and so can I.

One size does NOT fit all.

Almost all driving is pointless driving. You should be able to get everything you need on foot. After that there should be good public transit. Other than maybe for the disabled and emergency vehicles, cars should never be necessary.

I dunno...I LIKE driving....I was so happy to get my license finally as a teen....

I guess it's due to my always buying cars that were FUN to drive....performance oriented, good looking and well...FUN.

It's the same reason I own a motorcycle....fun.

And I don't care how well your public transport it, it will never be as quick and convenient. Door-to-door as I have with my private car on MY timetable.

Besides, I'd not like to try to schlub. My weekly shopping by hand on public transport....hell just a trip to Costco would be a nightmare hauling a 15lb brisket and 40lb bag of lump charcoal....and that doesn't even touch on the other things I generally buy on a Costco trip....

If you want that lifestyle, live somewhere extremely urban...more power to you but I and many others do NOT want that lifestyle....I like to drive and I like to NOT share walls with other people.

Clearly everyone wants to sit in an office where a dozen people are all talking to their PCs to write Word documents

Hell I can't stand having to be back in the office and having to listen to people yammer on in Teams meetings, or shoot the shit with a work friend near my desk....or just anything.

I dunno how I must have ignored in years back before I had to come back in, but I cannot fucking stand it and have great difficulty getting things done and keeping my concentration.

Are people louder today? Less considerate....or what?

Ugh...I gain absolutely NOTHING by coming into an office....and lose advantages I had. I got more done and FAR easier to eat on my proper diet since I was near my kitchen, that trying to haul all my food for the day to the office....

So many negatives to the office....and not a single positive can I think of....

But what if it was as good as on Star Trek?

MS' marketing is bull, but let's not pretend that being able to just tell a computer what to do hasn't been a long-term goal. It is something people want.

It is bad and has potential for REALLY bad.

You use Star Trek as you example...

I tend to think more towards HAL from 2001, or the Terminator movies (1-2...screw the rest of the crap).

No, I don't want to talk to machines AND...I don't want them turned loose to do things independently.

Clippy was just mildly annoying but I'd hate having to talk to my computer.

thank you!!

I was wondering if I was the ONLY person out here that didn't like talking to a fucking computer!!!

Hell I can't stand talking to the damned auto support numbers you get before you get a real person....I just tell it "Operator" over and over till I get a real person.

I hate that especially now that back in the office and everyone can hear what you're saying on the phone....I'd rather punch a damned number....but no they want a spoken prompt.

I don't want to talk to my regular computer or phone either....hell, I learned to fucking type for a reason....and again, at minimum, I'm not having to let the rest of the world listen in on my computer/internet queries.....my subject or thought processes....

And I don't want the computer doing shit independently of my commands....unless I tell it , don't just do shit.

Martha Stewart bakes bread...on Mars!

Fuck that.....think BEER!!!

lol...get your priorities together man....

;)

Hey....if yeast can survive there, that means you can brew BEER there.....

That's the key to life....so, maybe we can do it!!

I mean, the pilgrims stopped when and where they did because they ran outta beer...so, we know how important it is to long travel.....

The VA system performs as well or better than the private health care system

I can speak from first hand knowledge, that simply is NOT the case.

There are good people working there, but the care is NOT the best in the world....and the red tape prevents progress in any meaningful time scale....

Again....we cannot afford the govt health we have NOW with Medicare and Medicaid.....those two alone make up a large part of the annnual US budget as it is....and it's growing.

Just try adding the rest of the nation on there and well, you'll see bankrupt really quick.

A properly deployed wrench attack will result in you surrendering all your keys.

But I do agree we still pay too much for health care and the outcomes we receive are sub optimal. Obamacare was insurance reform, but I would like to see the U.S. pursue a universal single-payer system like pretty much every other high-income country in the world. Oh no, wait, "socialism!!!"

Oh God no...please never let the US govt be in charge of my health care.

It's not even the socialism thing.....it's just the massive clusterfuck that government is running things.

Some are a necessary evil....military....etc.

But no....I've been to Social Security offices....ugh.

I've been to other federal offices and it almost agony getting anything done.....and often it takes way more than one trip.

I imagine it would be akin to the DMV with govt medical care.....and I just do now trust MY health to the bloated mechanisms of the govt bureaucracy .....

That's not even getting into the politics that would inevitably get involved.

And the US....we could not afford it for everyone, hell we can't afford the US health care we DO have....Medicare and Medicaid....too bloated, too $$$ and just horrible to have to deal with....

Sure we need to fix the private industry....lots to be done there, but the govt is NOT the answer I want.

Hell.....who'd want to have govt run medical centers right now with a govt shutdown going on....?

No thanks.

we have seen more de-regulation, more tax cuts, more gutting of labor

Ah....isn't it GREAT???

Thank God we've gotten them in office periodically to roll back the government some....

We need more of this IMHO.....

I would say Obamacare is very pro national interest, in that it promotes the health and welfare of the nation and slowed the explosion of health care costs.

Except, it didn't.....it raised medical prices across the board, and they are still rising due to Obamacare.

Why do you think the Dems keep having to try to pile more and more money into it....the program is not sustainable, never was.

Unless we get these cretins under control, they will be the end of us.

Yeah...companies "prioritizing customer convenience and trying to sell cars"....

I mean, WTF were they thinking??!?!

JFC....I keep wondering where people leave where food and specifically meat is so $$$$

I live in the New Orleans area....PRIME grade Ribeyes and NYStrips can be had for $10.99 - $13.99/lb.

I llike to buy whole ribeye or strip roasts (usually at Costco) and cut into steaks myself, then vac seal and freeze them.

I know prices are going up...but geez....to me that was $1.99/lb for whole briskets going to over $5/lb (prime) these days.....makes my favorite BBQ meat more expensive.

Pork shoulders (Boston butt) was quite often $0.99/lb just a few months back, but of late the lowest price I find on those is $1.27/lb or so...

A whole top sirloin sub primal is like $8.88/lb this week at our regular grocery store....I'm going to get one of those and cut into pichanas.....sirloin steaks AND...cube up a bunch to marinate for shish-k-bobs.....

If food was really that fucking $$ in SD...I think I'd be moving out of that place pronto.....