Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

Post by romanoderoma » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 10:30 PM UTC

refurb wrote: post #334

kaesar14 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America is the richest country on earth. It's such a kneejerk reaction of our countrymen to defend our insane way of life by bringing up GDP numbers instead of stuff like life expectancy, quality of life, access to equitable transportation. America being rich is known fact already. Edit: From your own happiness survey link - "The U.S. GNI per capita income is actually higher than in most of the countries ahead of the…

Don't give a damn about GDP. Really? Because it's GDP that funds all those government services and social programs. I'm always confused when people don't give a damn about economics (i.e. during the Covid shutdown debate) when without economics you wouldn't have a functioning society.

Post by romanoderoma » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 10:35 PM UTC

crmrc114 wrote: post #148

dublinben wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The manufacturing and industrial sectors existed before automobiles, as did cities.

Right, next to waterways and railroads.

Post by kaesar14 » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 10:38 PM UTC

refurb wrote: post #334

kaesar14 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America is the richest country on earth. It's such a kneejerk reaction of our countrymen to defend our insane way of life by bringing up GDP numbers instead of stuff like life expectancy, quality of life, access to equitable transportation. America being rich is known fact already. Edit: From your own happiness survey link - "The U.S. GNI per capita income is actually higher than in most of the countries ahead of the…

Don't give a damn about GDP. Really? Because it's GDP that funds all those government services and social programs. I'm always confused when people don't give a damn about economics (i.e. during the Covid shutdown debate) when without economics you wouldn't have a functioning society.

Post by philwelch » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 10:43 PM UTC

jschwartzi wrote: post #370

philwelch wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much of that has been largely replaced with electronic media, and what remains is a “once in a while” occasion that people are willing to travel to. These days, much of the time, city-dwellers are the ones who have to travel to suburban venues. The main reasons for urbanization were always economic and political. Rome was not built for the Coliseum; the Coliseum was built for Rome.

There are still a lot of us who really enjoy theater, opera, concerts, shows, and the like. And those things can only be had in a city. It's true that local amphitheaters may book a few good live acts every year but that selection pales in comparison to what you can get every weekend in a reasonably-sized city. There are some fun local theater groups in my suburb too. But sometimes I really want to watch something ot…

Post by philwelch » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 10:47 PM UTC

xg15 wrote: post #120

tuna-piano wrote: post #55

It's interesting that protests generally happen in dense parts of cities. Now imagine a city without a dense part - protesting becomes more difficult. Myanmar's non-democratic military government actually moved their capital from a dense city to a new city so spread out and with no downtown area - potentially to prevent the ability to protest the government. https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/inside-burma-s-ghost-t…

Now that we have the ability to decouple most administrative work from location thanks to remote working, I wonder how long it will take for the first fully decentralised authoritarian government to appear. Can't have protests in the capital if you don't have a capital.