Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A rant on bus stops

walkingtheworld.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 190 posts

Re: A rant on bus stops

#181

Post by mafribe »

tmnvix wrote: post #129
Animats wrote: post #66

[flagged]

Alternatively, the US could be coming around to the realisation that it's time to address its addiction to exploiting people. I've known a lot of people that use drugs recreationally. The proportion of those that abuse drugs is small. That group almost invariably are in a bad situation before they compound it with drug use. Exploitation is damaging. In my opinion, fewer exploited people means fewer damaged lives mean…

> lot of people that use drugs recreationally.

We all know them. HN is full of them.

They are the reason why the production and distribution of drugs is financially viable, why we have functioning markets for illegal drugs. Consequently they, together with the producers and distributors, bear the responsibility for the cost that the existence of this well-lubricated market has on the weak, on those who cannot handle hard drugs recreationally.

Re: A rant on bus stops

#182

Post by 1letterunixname »

BMc2020 wrote: post #5

We used to have rent subsidies, mental hospitals, all night movie theaters. All gone.

"Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community" and such.

There are many contributing factors, not just screens, location mobility, or the decline of religion (churches being civic/social functions).

Parks used to have water fountains. Can't hardly find those anymore.

Children's parks used to have cool installations like decommissioned Korea era fighter jets in the sand pit and crawl-through metal sculptures. Those are all gone, replaced by perfectly safe, commercial, prefabricated sets.

Re: A rant on bus stops

#183

Post by 1letterunixname »

BMc2020 wrote: post #51
civilitty wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> all night movie theaters We've lost a sense of community. Look, years ago, before the Internet, we would all go out to the movies together. It used to be you give the creep-show at the window a couple of bucks, you could spend all day in there popping off. And the joy of it was there were people popping off at the same time. I mean, not that you looked at each other. It was dark. You weren't looking for the gay thi…

I'm not sure what understand what they were. The were regular theaters that showed regular movies all night. You paid your $2 (or whatever a ticket cost) and could sleep sitting in your seat. It was relatively warmer, dryer, and safer than outdoors.

"Hotel 22" is the closest in the Bay Area, as it runs from one end of Santa Clara County to the other. https://www.pbs.org/pov/films/hotel22/

It used to be there was a few 24-hour coffee shops, like Happy Donuts, where anyone could hang-out inside. It's no longer 24-hours.

Some people would stay in empty coin-op laundromats where the owners didn't kick everyone out and lock up.

Another option is 24 hour gyms where there are saunas, pools, and such.

Re: A rant on bus stops

#184

Post by 1letterunixname »

Pigalowda wrote: post #11
BMc2020 wrote: post #5

We used to have rent subsidies, mental hospitals, all night movie theaters. All gone.

I live in an apartment with neighbors who are subsidized, there’s a psychiatric hospital in every major city, and all night movie theaters would exist if there was a market for them. If you think there’s a market and money to be made - start your own

I'm sorry, but you don't appear to know the history of or what you're talking about.

The collapse of mental healthcare in the US was due to JFK admin's hasty transition from institutional to community-based treatment without a functioning parallel system. And, it remained unfinished without a proper replacement because subsequent administrations neglected it.

Reagan finished it off by ruining California's mental healthcare system and then the country's. The Regan's M.O. was to defund or ignore anything they couldn't relate to. How many Americans died needlessly from inaction on HIV/AIDS and manufactured crack epidemic as part of Iran-Contra is up for debate.

As such, in the modern day, many persons who need treatment do not receive it. And those who cannot function are often left to remain homeless and on the fringes.

Interestingly, the Cook County Sheriff's Office (Chicago) admins one of the more effective community mental healthcare systems because it's cheaper than locking people up and throwing away the key or bringing them to the ER every other night. Mental healthcare saves money, saves lives, and saves misery.

Re: A rant on bus stops

#185

Post by jimvdv »

ankaAr wrote: post #135

As Argentinian, and particularly, from Buenos Aires, one thing that I hate from US is the lack of public transportation network, bus stops and people that don't know the concept of line-up.

To be fair Buenos Aires queueing is on another level, neatest I’ve ever seen.

Re: A rant on bus stops

#186

Post by renewiltord »

Ferret7446 wrote: post #178
renewiltord wrote: post #27

I’m sure some aspect of this is the North American culture of high credentialism. Everything must be done by “properly trained” “experts” and whatnot. During the pandemic people on Han were talking about how N95 masks need you to be trained by professionals in a fit test. It’s a 15 min video on the 3M site… Here’s the facts: I can do almost any job well without needing extensive training. But credentialism gets in th…

Perhaps you can, but how can someone who doesn't know you trust that you can?

Ah but here's the thing: for things that affect me alone, perhaps just let me do it. An alternative, that I believe could be effective, is a bond that is paid into and managed in a similar way as 401k plans are.

E.g. say I want to try heroin. I furnish the $250k into the fund, get to try it, and 4 y later I get my money back if I pass a heroin drug test.

Re: A rant on bus stops

#187

Post by mindslight »

Retric wrote: post #174
mindslight wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am trying to tease out what the term "capitalism" objectively means, because otherwise it's all too easily to do motte-and-bailey - where supporters of an -ism claim things that seem good while disowning things that seem not good. Perhaps it's ridiculous to think this is even possible in a world where a term can mean something different to each person. But if discourse is ever going to get past one camp asserting t…

> I agree musicians aren't generally IP maximalists, but most musicians aren't generally capitalists either, so that doesn't say much. Songwriting etc seems like a very capitalistic enterprise to me. You evaluate the market then invest X hours making something that is then judged on the open market. This is very different from most people simply work for someone else. The parts of the music industry that’s IP maximal…

> Songwriting etc seems like a very capitalistic enterprise to me

I see where you're coming from with many aspects similar to say, starting a business [0]. But why is the specific label "capitalist" appropriate for songwriting, rather than songwriting merely being compatible with capitalism? Or describing it with similar terms like marked-based, enterprising, or something else? Without having "ownership" of the song afterwards, then the only resulting capital would be "social capital" for their name/reputation. But the term social capital is a stretch, as it cannot be freely traded with someone else the way a property right can be.

Would a songwriter in the SU, NK, or China do something different such that their songwriting isn't capitalist? Would a songwriter writing a song for a king be capitalist? Or even market based? It would be a stretch to call pleasing just a king and his court "a market", or preparing for it as "investment". So we're down to just human interaction of "is this other person going to appreciate what I've done", which "capitalism" can't really take credit for as a prescriptive paradigm. (There is a difference between using an -ism for analyzing traditional cases through its lens, and using it as a prescriptive model for shaping society)

> I don’t know how you could end up with a stable capitalist post scarcity society without any form of private ownership

This seems like another statement of a fundamental characteristic of capitalism that I agree with, but which supports my initial comment. If capitalism requires private ownership, then doesn't it stand to reason that a society which is more capitalist has more types of private ownership?

> Academia may actually be relevant model here. Mathematics isn’t owned by the individual who discovers it, but they still control and can invest in the means of production Aka themselves. Calling that capitalist doesn’t seem to fit, but it seems closer than the other options like socialism, anarchy, etc.

But the workers own the means of production, and can't really part with it (unless mathematicians were chattel). To me, it seems quite close to the ideal envisioned by communism [1], where individuals have implicit bodily autonomy but the fruits of their labor are shared for all to use.

[0] I've long said the SV startup scene is directly modeled on the LA music biz.

[1] I haven't read Marx and I'm definitely not implying that communism in practice could live up to this ideal across many types of endeavors!

Re: A rant on bus stops

#188

Post by civilitty »

1letterunixname wrote: post #183
BMc2020 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what understand what they were. The were regular theaters that showed regular movies all night. You paid your $2 (or whatever a ticket cost) and could sleep sitting in your seat. It was relatively warmer, dryer, and safer than outdoors.

"Hotel 22" is the closest in the Bay Area, as it runs from one end of Santa Clara County to the other. https://www.pbs.org/pov/films/hotel22/ It used to be there was a few 24-hour coffee shops, like Happy Donuts, where anyone could hang-out inside. It's no longer 24-hours. Some people would stay in empty coin-op laundromats where the owners didn't kick everyone out and lock up. Another option is 24 hour gyms where th…

> Another option is 24 hour gyms where there are saunas, pools, and such.

You mean in the Castro? wink wink

Re: A rant on bus stops

#189

Post by Pigalowda »

1letterunixname wrote: post #184
Pigalowda wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in an apartment with neighbors who are subsidized, there’s a psychiatric hospital in every major city, and all night movie theaters would exist if there was a market for them. If you think there’s a market and money to be made - start your own

I'm sorry, but you don't appear to know the history of or what you're talking about. The collapse of mental healthcare in the US was due to JFK admin's hasty transition from institutional to community-based treatment without a functioning parallel system. And, it remained unfinished without a proper replacement because subsequent administrations neglected it. Reagan finished it off by ruining California's mental heal…

I'm sorry you make assumptions on whether or not I know what I'm talking about. Have you ever worked in psychiatric hospital? I have.

What you are referencing is a different type of long term psychiatric facility. The supreme court case is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Connor_v._Donaldson

Blame Reagan all you want - I couldn't care less.

Re: A rant on bus stops

#190

Post by aksss »

pixl97 wrote: post #124
aksss wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> directly help people Indirect, I think you mean, and probably because people generally don’t trust their money to be spent well by institutions, and it’s not hard to figure out why. Americans lead the world in charitable giving and much of that is more direct - anonymously giving money to help a church member or giving money to local charities both are avenues with more visible impact.

It's not hard to figure out why, this is the Southern Strategy in action. After decades of dissolving institutions in the US and handing over the power to corporations we're finally getting our comeuppance.

> decades of dissolving institutions

Yet, mysteriously, after these many decades of dissolution the quantity of federal employees and spending in general has gotten higher and higher.

Post reply on HN