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Fitting - as this is likely emblematic of the way America is failing more broadly: we can't fix real problems with pipes, roads and other infrastructure because

Fitting - as this is likely emblematic of the way America is failing more broadly: we can't fix real problems with pipes, roads and other infrastructure because we created a generation (s) of people who were taught to look down on that kind of work. And we're at the end of our ability to fund adequate fixes to those things with national debt.

quantified 7mo ago
Also seems fitting for the state of DC today.
- subscribed 7mo ago
  And, by the extension, of the UK. Every single river is a sewage. Beaches have untreated human faeces, sometimes swimming in the sea is a risk to life because of sewage-borne illnesses. Decades of capital extraction and the governments trying really really hard not to see it.
  - sidewndr46 7mo ago
    I'm not really pro-UK or pro-anything in Europe, but most of Europe was built out before modern sewage treatment. Or for that matter the germ theory of disease. It's more than easy to understand why rivers have untreated sewage is dumped into rivers. At the time of construction, it was state of the art. The US in unusual in that most of it's population boom happened after modern sanitation. Yet we still have areas that discharge sewage into rivers on and ongoing basis.
bigbadfeline 7mo ago
> we can't fix real problems with pipes, roads and other infrastructure because we created a generation (s) of people who were taught to look down on that kind of work. The problem: "It's people's fault" (tm). "The Solution" (by B Brecht): “Would it not be simpler, for the government, to dissolve the people, and elect another?” Seriously, why not AI as a solution? That's where all the capital goes... how do you fix anything without capital?
chermi 7mo ago
I don't think that's the main problem. Yes, we can't fix stuff, but labor is among the smallest parts of the problem.
ahazred8ta 7mo ago
Pete Seeger - "We're filling up the seas with garbage (garbage, garbage, garbage)"

quantified 7mo ago

Also seems fitting for the state of DC today.

subscribed 7mo ago
And, by the extension, of the UK. Every single river is a sewage. Beaches have untreated human faeces, sometimes swimming in the sea is a risk to life because of sewage-borne illnesses. Decades of capital extraction and the governments trying really really hard not to see it.
- sidewndr46 7mo ago
  I'm not really pro-UK or pro-anything in Europe, but most of Europe was built out before modern sewage treatment. Or for that matter the germ theory of disease. It's more than easy to understand why rivers have untreated sewage is dumped into rivers. At the time of construction, it was state of the art. The US in unusual in that most of it's population boom happened after modern sanitation. Yet we still have areas that discharge sewage into rivers on and ongoing basis.

bigbadfeline 7mo ago

> we can't fix real problems with pipes, roads and other infrastructure because we created a generation (s) of people who were taught to look down on that kind of work. The problem: "It's people's fault" (tm). "The Solution" (by B Brecht): “Would it not be simpler, for the government, to dissolve the people, and elect another?” Seriously, why not AI as a solution? That's where all the capital goes... how do you fix anything without capital?

chermi 7mo ago

I don't think that's the main problem. Yes, we can't fix stuff, but labor is among the smallest parts of the problem.

ahazred8ta 7mo ago

Pete Seeger - "We're filling up the seas with garbage (garbage, garbage, garbage)"