Comment Re:Hitler and Trump get rid of the comedians first (Score 1) 183
Putin has been trying to get rid of Zelenskyy for a few years now, but isn't having much luck there.
Putin has been trying to get rid of Zelenskyy for a few years now, but isn't having much luck there.
and trains can be very comfortable and safe
They can be, but not when they're over crowded. Then they are extremely uncomfortable, and become ideal spreading grounds for infectious diseases as well as pickpockets. The conditions commuters endure at peak times would be illegal for transporting farm animals in many countries.
Pushing more people into over crowded trains is not the answer, reducing congestion should be the goal.
Only it's not, the focus is always on forcing more people onto public transport which just increases congestion and worsens conditions.
Work remote if you can, if your job can't be done remotely have the workplace in a location that enables people to live nearby and walk to work. Having workplaces bunched together in an area with no housing is harmful.
... and that, children, is why capitalism is waaaaay better than communism (;-D).
The massive distortions in the real estate market have stemmed from the wall of money created by decades of near-zero interest rates. This has driven serious malinvestment.
Was that capitalist? Well, the money supply is indirectly controlled by the Fed, which -- due to political pressure -- attempts to iron out the business cycle by creating walls of money every time it looks like things are getting choppy.
One could argue -- and I would agree -- that this is better than the pure unfettered capitalist alternative, which would see bank failures and people's life savings wiped out for no fault of their own. However, as a consequence, we get this absurd malinvestment problem.
There's more to this. You might ask, why doesn't the Fed just set the interest rate higher, so that people really need to have a productive use for money before they go buy up a bunch of houses? That hits at the heart of the stated goal to create persistent low levels of inflation, which allows the government (and debtors everywhere) to debase their debts. Because otherwise people wouldn't borrow as much money to drive economic growth. I find this nonsensical, because we loosening capital requirements creates precisely the malinvestment we want to stop. However, it's the government likes the ability to continuously debase its debt.
So it's not capitalism, and it's absolutely the result of policy choices, and it doesn't have to be this way. But it is because it suits the needs of powerful people in society.
If you took the train into the city during peak hours from these locations where you lived, how comfortable was it?
Standing room only with other passengers packed in so you can barely move assuming you can even physically get inside, no air conditioning so it's unbearably hot during the summer... Do you actually like travelling in these conditions? And you believe that *more* people should be travelling on these same trains?
The fact is many journeys are unnecessary, and most travel at peak times is extremely unpleasant wether you're driving a car stuck in traffic, or on a train enduring the conditions above. Getting away from this antiquated mindset of dragging everyone to a workplace at the same time every day solves so many problems.
It's a combination of excessive consumption (sure we've eaten these foods for thousands of years, but not in the same quantities), heavy processing, and artificial ingredients used as replacements for things either because they're cheaper or because the original ingredient is being blamed for obesity/diabetes.
For example, a recent study shows that artificial sweeteners are more dangerous than sugar:
https://www.oncologyrepublic.c...
Multiple governments have been pushing hard to reduce sugar, which resulted in them being replaced with artificial sweeteners making the problem even worse.
The key drivers here are poorly thought out government initiatives to reduce X, and the commercial for-profit food production model which incentivises excessive consumption. The removal of [fat|salt|sugar] being a prime example, they replaced these with artificial junk and now openly promote "now sugar free, you can drink as much as you want!".
Moderate consumption of traditional ingredients is the obvious solution, but no for-profit company is ever going to encourage people to buy less of its product.
There have been studies of remote workers that found they don't actually travel less. As I understand it, people use their commute to chain trips for other purposes. Without the commute, those trips get made individually. In many cases people actually drive more.
Not really, they might make a trip to go shopping instead of picking something up on the way back but that's about it. It's also down to city layout as some people may not have shops nearby where they live. The long commute can also be replaced by a short trip to the shop which will often be a walk.
In many european countries lots of people don't even have cars, and if you don't need to commute every day and have basic essentials within easy walking distance you have very little need for a permanent car and can save the cost. For occasional trips there are rental cars or car clubs.
There is a reason central cities exist. They are very efficient. One of those efficiencies is lost when you rely on single occupancy vehicles instead of mass transit and walking.
Trains do a great job of comfortably moving large numbers of people quickly. The areas around stations develop densely to take advantage of that and that density supports the other efficiencies.
Those efficiencies depend on packing people in. Transporting livestock in such cramped conditions is actually illegal in many places, and yet you would willingly subject yourself to such conditions twice a day? You know what would be significantly more efficient? Storing you in a coffin sized pod in the office outside of working hours, that way you don't require housing or travel and can be paid significantly less.
Slavery is the most efficient system of work, is that where you want to end up?
Please go away.