32 ms·
i really do take you seriously. and i learn from you. but also: come on, Japan is the planet's most economically significant TINY ISLAND. you don't have to rea
by apsurd 3y ago
i really do take you seriously. and i learn from you.
but also: come on, Japan is the planet's most economically significant TINY ISLAND. you don't have to reach for capitalist conspiracy theories to reason about Japan's issues.
and i say this as a kind of inevitable anti-capitalist!
- cyberax 3y agoTokyo's issues are not caused by it being on a tiny island. As I said, Japan has literally millions of empty houses right now: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/realestate/japan-empty-houses.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/realestate/japan-empty-ho... And there's nothing "conspiracy" about what I'm saying. There's no secret global cabal that wants to push people into cities. It's simply caused by a toxic confluence of ideology and economic forces.
- HDThoreaun 3y agoTokyo's crowding is absolutely due to Japan being an island with essentially zero natural resources. Literally everyone wants to go to tokyo because there are no other jobs.
- cyberax 3y ago> Literally everyone wants to go to tokyo because there are no other jobs. Natural resources have nothing to do with it. Extraction industries employ comparatively few people, even in resource-rich countries. If anything, resource-rich countries experience even more densification. Case in point: Moscow. Its population density is 5200 people per square kilometer. Tokyo is at 6100 people per square kilometer. The reason is that it's easier for companies to create jobs in cities. It's not impossible for them to do otherwise, but a company with one huge office in the Downtown will likely have a competitive advantage over a company that has multiple distributed offices.
- apsurd 3y agocyberax, did you read your own article you linked to? In short, the "abandoned houses" are abandoned BECAUSE they're rural. I can't understand how this serves your view about dense urban cities being bad.
- cyberax 3y agoAnd why rural houses are abandoned? Always ask the next quesiton. They are abandoned because there are no jobs around them. And there are no jobs because they have all concentrated into dense city cores.
- Exoristos 3y agoWhat makes you so confident in your opinion?
- apsurd 3y agoI've lived various lifestyles. If i was to bluntly answer your question, really it's because I hate cars. I understand that global economies need last mile delivery infrastructure and so there's roads. I get that. But if you ask me to live a life of Suburban commuting, I'd tell you, from experience: that's inhumane. I'm born and raised in Los Angeles. It's not the absolute worst, but it gives me the credibility I need to say yeah i'd rather literally walk and bike everywhere than suffer the inhumanity of car culture. and that's what i do.
- Exoristos 3y agoYou were replying to another commenter so patronizingly, which isn't a common interaction, that I was puzzled. But then I realized you do so because you are really just so confident in your opinion on this matter. And I assumed that means this is the opinion held by your social group or political organization, but then I thought I'd let you explain.
- apsurd 3y agooh, so cyberax and I like to comment on these "how should we run our cities" threads. Read his comment history. He's very clear with his perspective. That's why i replied so dramatically. Mostly, it was meant specifically playful for cyberax.