Well the car companies gotta do something, they've all (in the US) lost billions trying to convert to EVs....and no one in the US wants them.

They overshot the perceived demand...and have to retool to go back to ICE to keep selling cars/trucks in the US.

Something has to give with losses like that.

Interesting....I've never heard of such a thing,,...a minum energy building....?

LOL...I doubt I'd survive there long...my tube amps alone likely would have me thrown out of such an abode...

You can't just hang a window AC unit out of one of your windows?

That's easy, does't require any apt. Modifications....

Thank you good answer.

We do not want "mob rule" here in the US...and if we didn't use the EC to more proportionally allocate vote weighting....then basically NYC and California for the most part would dictate who was president....and ignore the vast middle of the US.

Here in the US, you are a citizen of your state first and then of the United States....the state is what affects your life the most directly...and each state is diverse in its population climate, land types and laws....so they need to be more represented on a state level by the president...the Congress has a house with proportionate representations as a part of this too.

Most of us do NOT want a national ID.

If it can misused, it WILL be misused and we all know that...at least to date we do.

The US has a single centralised government with a single currency, Europe is not.

You've partially right....we have a single currency, but we do NOT have just a single centralized government.

The Federal govt. is and is supposed to be somewhat weak...and its few enumerated powers are in the US constitution....

The real power that actually governs the people for the most part, resides in the individual states. That's how we have VERY varying laws in many respects.....there are some cases the SCOTUS has had to take over the years, mostly on equal rights, etc....to establish that are constitutionally the same across states, but for the most part, everything that affects a citizens' life daily is governed by the laws of the state they reside in....so, financial laws, tax laws (state and local)...etc can all vary by state.

Most states have sales taxes..some do not. Some do not have income tax and others do...some states require car inspections annually, some to not and even those that do, vary in what they check..most do not check emissions if I recall correctly....

So, the US has. Federal govt that manages the currency....and is a singular face to the world....but internallly it's largely a mishmash of state laws that change as you cross state borders...

The US - within living memory - used to be a high trust society.

Of course, no, it wasn't perfect but I grew up in MN. You could leave your car running outside a Target on a bitterly cold January day and it wouldn't get stolen. In the small town I grew up in, it was pretty common to 'run a tab' at the local grocery so if you needed to stop and get stuff but turned out you forgot your wallet, etc they'd just note your name and the amount and you'd come back in (usually as soon as you could, as it was embarrassing) and pay off your tab.

But then...the Somalis came along with millions of other illegal and legal migrants from LOW trust societies.....and helped ruin this.

It's easier to be a high trust society when the member of the society are more homogenious , and live and think alike largely.

Then why did the US give up paying in cash?

Err....we still pay in cash over here....I actually try to do MOST of my local domestic shopping in cash.

Remember decades ago we had a hurricane and power was out for about 5 days. The streets were a mess.. trees and power lines down everywhere. Yet when you picked up the phone there was still tone and the green backlight still lit up.

Certainly NOT for Katrina.

Hell for at least a MONTH after Katrina, no matter where you were in the US you could not receive a phone call if you had a NOLA 504 phone number.

But for some reason texts would work.....so, I learned how to text then.

Phones were dead in the city for awhile for the one that came through LA 1-2 years ago....phones were out at east a few days if I recall..?

exactly. so why is it a problem if people choose to pay through their nose for techno-fetish or status symbols?

Using Apple products ceased to be any sort of "status symbol"....LONG ago....no one generally gives it a 2nd glance if someone is using something apple branded....

Just curious....does Anthropic and other AI companies as a matter of policy prohibit connections from China or any of their co-horts?

Do they block all IP addresses from china?

And there we have ity. this is allso a self reinforcing system, due it it being dangerous to walk no one walks so waking walkable neighborhoods will never be a priority because everyone drives eventyrere anyway so..

Unless you are in one of the view ultra-urban cities....no we just aren't built to be "walkable"....hasn't been a need or impediment so far to be honest....it's just our way of life here.

And we're not going to be spending exhorbant amounts of money to rip and and redo our cities.

Personally I dont wanna live somewhere where I'm required to live in dense housing and share walls with neighbors. I prefer to have a front and especially a back yard where I can fence it in or my dogs, so I can set up my large log burning offsent smoker, sent up for parties with friends and neighbors for crawfish boils, etc....

I'm VERY happy being "non-walkable"....my cars and motorcycle suit me just fine for shopping, travel and just having fun out on the road....

I don't have trucks or SUVs myself....but to each their own.

Do look for that Jay Leno video...they discuss this and apparently this does not increase the weight....they apparently have plenty of strength through other means....

In saner regions of the world pedestrian safety is a requirement in vehicles

No body fucking walks in the US man....hence it doens't occur to us to be any sort of "priority".

Go stand in front of a truck and ask yourself are you going under, or over when it hits you

See?

Now this is where I assume that most people are like myself and try NOT to stand in front of a truck....

Self preservation and all that...common sense some folks call it.