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What if we just built infrastructure for trains and bikes? Heck, give folks subsidies to buy ebikes. Like, traffic is a solvable problem with what we have toda

What if we just built infrastructure for trains and bikes? Heck, give folks subsidies to buy ebikes. Like, traffic is a solvable problem with what we have today. This obsession with the automobile is going to cause such a continued headache for us. And yeah, we probably still need a few cars and taxis around, but surely we can just have a human drive the taxi?

steveBK123 4y ago
Yup. It's a shame SV took advantage of ZIRP to fund never-going-to-work software and perma-unprofitable businesses, subsidizing the urban upper class lifestyle.. but governments did not use the same cheap funding to build some trains.
- prottog 4y ago
  Yes, it's a damn shame that the so-called innovators in SV didn't tackle actual problems the solutions to which would materially improve human existence. Imagine if those billions went to companies like TerraPower or NuScale instead of unprofitable food deliveries.
  - Nextgrid 4y ago
    Human existence being miserable perpetuates demand for half-baked solutions forever. Actually solving the problem once and for all would eliminate said demand.
    - prottog 4y ago
      If that was true, we'd still be riding around horse buggies, instead of the imperfect-but-better cars. Because we live in an imperfect world populated by imperfect human beings, every solution is a half-baked solution, and misery will only be reduced at the margins, one small step at a time. There's no cabal of greedy capitalists who are purposely holding us back in order to profit off of more misery. Edit: I take that back: there is a group of greedy people who do actually benefit from misery, and that would be our dear politicians ;-)
      - Nextgrid 4y ago
        > There's no cabal of greedy capitalists who are purposely holding us back in order to profit off of more misery. The advertising industry's continued existence and expansion seems to disprove this. There's absolutely no reason most tech products out there should intentionally waste user's time by showing them ads for things to buy when they're doing unrelated tasks, and yet they can and do so because a minority can benefit.
newaccount2021 4y ago

steveBK123 4y ago

Yup. It's a shame SV took advantage of ZIRP to fund never-going-to-work software and perma-unprofitable businesses, subsidizing the urban upper class lifestyle.. but governments did not use the same cheap funding to build some trains.

prottog 4y ago
Yes, it's a damn shame that the so-called innovators in SV didn't tackle actual problems the solutions to which would materially improve human existence. Imagine if those billions went to companies like TerraPower or NuScale instead of unprofitable food deliveries.
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  Human existence being miserable perpetuates demand for half-baked solutions forever. Actually solving the problem once and for all would eliminate said demand.
  - prottog 4y ago
    If that was true, we'd still be riding around horse buggies, instead of the imperfect-but-better cars. Because we live in an imperfect world populated by imperfect human beings, every solution is a half-baked solution, and misery will only be reduced at the margins, one small step at a time. There's no cabal of greedy capitalists who are purposely holding us back in order to profit off of more misery. Edit: I take that back: there is a group of greedy people who do actually benefit from misery, and that would be our dear politicians ;-)
    - Nextgrid 4y ago
      > There's no cabal of greedy capitalists who are purposely holding us back in order to profit off of more misery. The advertising industry's continued existence and expansion seems to disprove this. There's absolutely no reason most tech products out there should intentionally waste user's time by showing them ads for things to buy when they're doing unrelated tasks, and yet they can and do so because a minority can benefit.

newaccount2021 4y ago