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That Onion headline rubs me the wrong way... Just because a problem is unique to a country doesn't make that problem easily preventable.
by dagav 7y ago
That Onion headline rubs me the wrong way... Just because a problem is unique to a country doesn't make that problem easily preventable.
- altShiftDev 7y agoYes, actually it does. You simply have to act like other countries in which it isn't a problem.
- paulryanrogers 7y agoCould it be some countries have unique demographics, climate, or cultural factors not found elsewhere? I'm not saying SF is blameless, but what works in Japan or Norway isn't guaranteed to work in SF.
- asdff 7y agoIt could be, but the broader frustration is that these factors you cite aren't even researched on a local level. You say the trains run on time in Japan, and people don't respond by researching transit infrastructure in Japan to figure out why that is. They respond by throwing their hands in the air and staying it's impossible, unfundable, politically untenable, whatever fluff reason that's indicative of an unwillingness to think analytically about the problem. The underlying cause is that there is no thought or scholarship in local government, just electoral risk assessment.
- rcoveson 7y agoAs long as we're calling out answers that are really easy to come up with but impossible to implement, I'd like to offer a few: * For mass shootings: Un-invent guns * For poop in the streets: Devise a zero-waste diet that obviates defecation * For both problems: Simply make all the bad people act like the good people
- BurningFrog 7y agoWithout arguing about what factors cause it, it's undeniable that 1. Non US rich countries have much less mass shootings. 2. Non SF major US cities have much less street poop. This shows that neither problem is unavoidable.
- rcoveson 7y agoI don't think you got my point. I recognize that neither problem is unavoidable. We agree that both can be solved, and even that we should look to others who don't have such problems to find solutions. However, calling "simple" the process of getting one country to broadly "be" like another country is just absurd and unhelpful. One could go around throwing that out as a solution to literally any unique problem had by any country. It's the nation-scale equivalent of telling a depressed child to just be happy like the other kids.
- BurningFrog 7y agoI actually agree. I didn't and wouldn't use the word "simple". My point was more that it's "possible".
- Proven 7y agoNo one said it's easily preventable. A country could be split in two or 200 smaller entities and we'd know if the problem is unique to all of them, or if some can manage to solve it. Why should any individual have to listen to some theories rather than exercise their right to choose? The People don't exist to benefit of the State or its (unionized!) employees.