3 ms·

what do you mean by infrastructural changes?

• advael 3y ago
  An often-cited example is the considerable investment we've made into spread-out living spaces that require that people are doing long, daily car-based commutes. This kind of planning creates a situation where an increase in the price of gas is devastating to people's livelihoods and ability to move through the world, which is a lot of why gas prices going up can be a make-or-break political issue for so many people. The flight to suburbs is a relatively recent phenomenon that could be reversed with different infrastructure choices. We could invest into mass-transit and, probably more importantly, better colocation of the resources people need to live, especially in an era where a lot of job functions can be done remotely (and a considerable segment of the economy clearly want to work remotely if they're allowed to) Obviously this isn't going to just naturally occur, but we are already pretty artificially supporting the situation as it is: Part of the reason gas prices can stay low is that we already dump considerable subsidies into the already-profitable oil and gas industry
  • whimsicalism 3y ago
    Your solution would involve massively raising the cost of suburban and rural living. If it doesn't involve that, then people won't move. I'm generally in favor of that - but the people who won't even support $10/mo in electrical bills are not going to support tearing up suburbia. Restructuring our infrastructure/society is not an easier ask than higher gas prices.