SwingingTheLamp

joined 8 months ago
[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 23 points 2 weeks ago

I figured it out a while back. It's a definitional mismatch. While you and I think about entry level as the level at which we enter a career, the companies think of entry level as the level at which somebody enters the company. They ditched any notion of social responsibility in the form of cultivating new workers long ago.

[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 1 points 2 weeks ago

Nah, I feel like you're really reaching. Walking is an innate characteristic of all humans. One of the defining characteristics, some say. That poor people walk in Houston is not a revelation. However, it is unconsciously making cars an instrument of punishment for the poor (forced to walk in a car-dominated hellscape), that is the dipshit behavior, and hell yes I'll judge Americans all day for being so cruel. It's anything but innate; you can't choose your skin color or sexual orientation, but you certainly can choose not to scream about removing a few street parking spots for an important bike lane.

The observation that Americans don't walk unless it's a special event comes from a lifetime of observing my fellow Americans. Hell, I watch my neighbors drive 4 blocks to the grocery store almost daily.

[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Thankfully, calling out dipshits for the dipshit things that they do is not racism. Houstonians have a choice, and they choose.... that kind of abomination.

[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If the U.S. is so large, then don't we have plenty of room to build the necessities of life (stores, schools, offices) near where people live? The size of the country has next to nothing to do with the layout of a city. That's absurd.

[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

As yes, in the immortal words of Kris Kristofferson, "Freedom's just another word for deciding where you want to go based on other people not wanting to go there, too. (And somebody building a road to get there.)"

[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip -1 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Funny thing, flattening the entire city is what did happen in the 20th century. But for cars.

Bad transit and big parking lots are a policy choice, and many cities around the world are showing that we can still make better choices. We don't just have to put up with car shit.

[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 4 points 2 weeks ago (8 children)

Americans do walk sometimes, but only if it's a special event raising money for charity, or on vacation to a theme park like Disney World or Europe. Otherwise, if you can't park your car literally within sight of your destination, "there's no parking!"

[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 23 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

But cars are freedom! They let you go anywhere you want, right? /s

[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 9 points 3 weeks ago

Incorrect. You get credit for the donation; it does not affect the company's taxes. Its just that most people don't claim the tax credit, because most of us don't donate enough to itemize rather than take the standard deduction.

[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 6 points 3 weeks ago

Well, not quite. The corporation is a distinct legal entity, and is served a summons per se. For practical purposes of actually delivering the papers to a person, the corporation must have a designated representative. This may be anybody, and there are businesses that specialize in serving as the designated representative for perhaps hundreds of corporations. (Especially those that exist only as legal entities.) I know of one nearby me that's basically just a mailbox, even though it's listed as the address for many, many corporations.

The whole purpose of a corporate entity, as a legal concept, is to shield the directors, and officers, from personal liability. Unless personally named in a suit, a CEO almost never shows up in court. That's a job for an attorney.

[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I'm not sure how California works, but that's wholly inaccurate for Wisconsin, and most other states. Gas taxes and registration fees go to the state, and they do not even cover the whole state transportation budget. Non-car zones area far, far more economically productive than car-oriented areas. Strong Towns has a whole series of articles about it, based on data analysis performed by a consultant called Urban3.

I did the numbers once on the apartment building that I lived in, with ground-floor retail, and it absolutely blew the nearby Walmart out of the water as far as return on investment for the city. More jobs per acre, more taxes per acre, less infrastructure cost, the whole deal.

Yes, there's this persistent myth in America that cars are good for the economy and local business. It is a myth, though. When you actually look at the real-world numbers, cars are destroying cities financially.

[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 65 points 1 month ago (9 children)

Another fun fact: Walkable neighborhoods are cheaper to build. But we've made that illegal, and instead build insanely expensive car infrastructure everywhere, then wonder why we have an affordability crisis.

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