Peak stupidity is allowing, let alone supporting private companies to have control over your health care.

Still....better than having the Federal bureaucracy in charge of it....

Ugh....can you imagine health centers ala DMV?

*shudder*

Don't forget....booze on an airplane also seems to be exceptionally good too!!!

Something about some beer or a good mixed drink just seems to make the works GREAT at 30K feet....

We went from walled gardens like AOL CompuServe, the WELL, Delphi, etc., to open authorship of websites, and now we are back to a lot of walled gardens, we just call them social media - Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, all with their own revenue generating enclosures.

I was teaching undergrad and graduate level teachers in 1998 through 2000, and they would almost universally come in demanding that they know how to make a webpage and write HTML. I also had to make sure that they knew what a student experience was like, so we were, at that time, still pretty big on LOGO. They were convinced that LOGO was utter nonsense and a useless toy, and that they had to learn HTML or they would be left as the jetsam of the Internet. A week into HTML, where are syntax errors beget digital avalanches, they were ready to tear their hair out. A week into LOGO and they were just as inspired and happy as the kids they would eventually teach it to. You didnâ(TM)t get a syntax error in LOGO, the console simply asks you to teach it how to do the thing you typed that wasnâ(TM)t in its vocabulary.

Even after we had some of the early foolproof web authoring tools, people realized that the hard part was not necessarily coding, it was making sure you knew what you were going to talk about, how to say it, how to present it, how to have it make sense and how to use the hyperlinking that the web was built for.

Of course, revenue has a lot to do with the overall frustrating Web experience today, to read the first story on my local newspaper site. I have to dismiss no less than five ads and pop-up offers. Iâ(TM)ve never been to the Vegas strip, but I imagine the visual assault of the current web means I really donâ(TM)t need to experience it in person in the physical world. And of course, like operating systems, every major provider wants to make sure you stay in theirs. Itâ(TM)s kind of like how CVS is no longer a pharmacy, they build a separate building that has enough stuff so that you donâ(TM)t even try to shop elsewhere when you go in to get your RX. You grab all the other things you need there so that you wonâ(TM)t go elsewhere. META has adopted this model, they want to make sure that everything you need to get through your day is available in their brand. Google as well. Google is an advertising company that happens to be willing to supply you with some serviceable tools to do other things. Kind of like the car Homer Simpson designs. And Iâ(TM)ll stop now because Iâ(TM)m starting to sound like grandpa Simpson with the onions.

Right, the economist refer to this as "externality". Fossil fuels aren't cheap, if you factor in the costs that people using them transfer to third parties. Theoretically, if the true cost of using fossil fuels were factored into every pound of coal or gallon of gasoline consumed, then we would use *exactly the right amount* of fossil fuels. Probably not zero, but not as much as we do when we pretend pollution isn't a cost.

Seems to be missing the point on this thread....

Let's think practical about this new "ice".....

As in...will this keep my cocktail cold longer?

Will this keep the beer in my ice chest colder for longer?

;)

It just sounds like the greatest nation in the world is incapable of doing what other smaller nations do

We just don't want it...nor need it.

Then I travelled the world and actually looked at how things work and now I'm just sad that I lived with my own narrow minded view. Stay ignorant buddy, you'll kick yourself if you actually experience something that changes your world view, it's not a nice feeling

I've been to Europe and some other parts of the world.

While visiting I had fun and thought it was "quaint".....but it's not how I would like to live.

As I've mentioned before, I don't want to share walls with neighbors or live in tower apartments....

I like to have a yard to enjoy....I've always owned FUN sports cars and motorcycles, I love to drive them....every time I jump in my car or on my bike, I get a big stupid ass smile on my face 'cause I'm off on a new adventure.

I think much of the difference is due to mindeset of nations. The US has long been a country of the "individual". Places like the EU are more group think...."the needs of the many".

And those differences lend themselves to different lifestyles.

Different strokes for different folks.

And again...in the US, if you don't like the lifestyles,, laws, etc of where you live...you CAN move to where things more align with your life preferences.

Here we don't have to depend on one size fits all....and, isn't choice the best thing?

You know what is unreliable? Cars. I have no idea what traffic will do. Will I be there in 35minutes or an hour and 10mintes?

Sounds like poor road design if that's your problems.

I rarely run into "traffic" that is in anyway bad ....it's not something I have to plan for...and I can get to where I want door-to-door in minutes anywhere in the city.

And I live in New Orleans....so, quite often there is going to be drinking involved, and in my older years, I just don't bother driving after adult beverages anymore, so I just call an uber for those times....again, door-to-door.

No needing to deal with the elements walking to a train station, etc.....we might not get THAT cold down here, but a large part of the year is very HOT and HUMID.....and at times you really wanna limit your outdoor time, especially if you are dressed nice...otherwise you show up at your destination as a sweat stain.

Public transport...it just really isn't a thing here, nor in most cities I've lived in in the US, but I'm not felt my life has suffered in the least because if it.

I've always had a car or motorcycle that is FUN to drive and I hop in and enjoy it....

Obviously even Americans prefer walkable cities.

Obviously we don't....if we did, we'd either have more of them or would have more in the works.

That just isn't our mindset.

We generally don't like to be clumped all together, we prefer more open spaces and elbow room.

I prefer to have a yard where I can, in the back, set up my large log burning offset smoker to do BBQ, or set up a large 100 gallon pot for crawfish boils.....and have friends and neighbors over to enjoy a nice day with me.

And going out to see things?

I live in the New Orleans area....we only have 52 weeks a year, and there are FAR more fests (music, food, etc) that you can attended if you tried annually.

And yet, I don't live in "walkable"....nor do I want to.

I have my nice yard, my friends have places to park their boats and we go out on them fishing or just for fun....and again BEST of all, I do not share walls with anyone. Over the years I put a LOT of investments into building my AV system and I occasionally like to exercise its decibel range....with no shared walls, I don't disturb the neighbors and they don't bother me.

I do walk my dog...daily and meet my neighbors as I do...the nice thing is...it's not all concrete like an urban city where you have limited green space.

And guess what - they serve wine on all those occasions.

LOL, I live in fucking New Orleans....we have wine....beer and hard liquor cocktails anywhere here you want, 24/7.....no open container laws either.

Try THAT in your urban paradise.

That's what they've done. Or rather they've bought the politicians who create the regulatory frameworks. But if people woke up and realized they've been frog-boiled into giving away their privacy, then that would be prohibitively expensive.

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.