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America could have $4 lunch bowls like Japan but for zoning laws

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Re: America could have $4 lunch bowls like Japan but for zoning laws

#241

Post by vjulian »

vjulian wrote: post #51
milkytron wrote: post #15

I serve as a planning commissioner for my city, and my city just recently tried to overhaul our zoning code to allow for more affordability and better economic outcomes for our citizens and future as a city. Here is what I have learned: In the US, few people participate or care about local laws, zoning, and elections, or even understand why participation may be important. In a citizen ballot to determine if we should…

This sort of citizen engagement is cute, naïve and ultimately pointless. Where I live in the US the major landowner(s) and local billionaire(s) ultimately controls these things. I’m not being sarcastic.

I find it curious that I earned -2 points. Perhaps my points in the post were too pointed for some people. That, or some people really love civics theatre.

Re: America could have $4 lunch bowls like Japan but for zoning laws

#242

Post by IAmBroom »

veidr wrote: post #207
jawns wrote: post #117

If you want a fast, healthy, balanced meal for $4 or less, the obvious choice in America is a frozen meal (aka TV dinner). You can microwave it in 4-6 minutes; ingredients are often flash-frozen, locking in nutrients; and food-safety concerns are addressed at scale, rather than in a hit-or-miss way in a tiny storefront. So perhaps, instead of advocating for more tiny restaurants that would likely need to skimp on saf…

Not sure I can accept most of your assertions, but anyway, I left America in 2008 and IIRC there were microwaves available in every 7-11 even then? There were't any $4 healthy bowls of anything, but there were $2 "red hot beef & bean" (& fake soy filler) burritos which hit the spot if you'd failed to find a way to eat real food... The problem with the microwave solution, I think, is that pretty much only burritos and…

I microwave most of my meals. Solid disagree.

Re: America could have $4 lunch bowls like Japan but for zoning laws

#243

Post by IAmBroom »

mapotofu wrote: post #201
eschulz wrote: post #176

I'm probably the only person here who has been in a Walmart in the last year or two, but recently I found that my local Walmart offers a warm counter with freshly prepared small bites, and you can get a respectable chicken sandwich for $2. It's a decent small meal, and the same item would probably be $6-$12 at a fast foot joint. I guess each individual Walmart is big enough to offer these bites to their shoppers.

That’s not a respectable sandwich. They have it at mine too, by the produce, which would be a better choice than eating that.

"Respectable" is not something I care about in a sandwich. Beyond your disdain for things from Walmart, how is a filling, tasty sandwich not "respectable"?

Re: America could have $4 lunch bowls like Japan but for zoning laws

#245

Post by moi2388 »

systemtest wrote: post #124
moi2388 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then find a legal place to stay and register and you can vote.

A yes, why didn't I think of that! Let me just completely ignore the broken housing market, the 15+ year waiting list for social housing and scrape together... lets checks... €400k for a small appartement with a 45 minute commute to work. Do you have any clue how privileged you sound here? This is peak "have you tried not being poor" attitude.

Small apartments are not 400k, that’s average house price for family houses.

Apartments are between 180-250k.

Re: America could have $4 lunch bowls like Japan but for zoning laws

#246

Post by danaris »

FeloniousHam wrote: post #178
dv_dt wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Protests come when people are pushed into a corner with little other choice. Participation is more prevalent when people have free time in their lives. Our economics has systematically squeezed free time out in favor of more work to most of our workforce, and particularly hard for young people. One reason so many local city policies favor the old, is that they're retired and have the time to participate

When in American history have we had more free time for civic participation?

In the latter half of the 20th century, while many things were much worse than they are today, it was genuinely possible to support a family on a single minimum-wage job in many parts of the country.

Now, that doesn't mean that everyone used the extra time for civic participation, but when you compare that to today, when far too many people have to work two or three jobs per adult just to keep the lights on, I think it's fair to say that there was more free time.

Re: America could have $4 lunch bowls like Japan but for zoning laws

#247

Post by [deleted] »

sharts wrote: post #230
dv_dt wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Protests come when people are pushed into a corner with little other choice. Participation is more prevalent when people have free time in their lives. Our economics has systematically squeezed free time out in favor of more work to most of our workforce, and particularly hard for young people. One reason so many local city policies favor the old, is that they're retired and have the time to participate

Protests are also largely useless.

[deleted]

Re: America could have $4 lunch bowls like Japan but for zoning laws

#248

Post by moi2388 »

systemtest wrote: post #143
moi2388 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but it should be. I saw your other comment with regards to the Netherlands. If that’s where you’re located, you only need to have a stable location once. Then you can register. Another person can’t unregister you from there, so you can vote even if you then move to a hotel. Only question remains is how you want to deal with mail, but there are workarounds for that.

In The Netherlands it is illegal to be register at an address you don't live at.

Not true. Only when you move to a new municipality, or are out of the country for more than 8 months.

Max fine is 325€.

You can also go to city hall and give a temporary address.

Sounds like you just don’t know Dutch law and options at all tbh.

Re: America could have $4 lunch bowls like Japan but for zoning laws

#249

Post by ryandrake »

FeloniousHam wrote: post #178
dv_dt wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Protests come when people are pushed into a corner with little other choice. Participation is more prevalent when people have free time in their lives. Our economics has systematically squeezed free time out in favor of more work to most of our workforce, and particularly hard for young people. One reason so many local city policies favor the old, is that they're retired and have the time to participate

When in American history have we had more free time for civic participation?

Young people seem to have plenty of free time to march around the streets protesting, chanting and banging drums (which has pretty much zero effect on policy), but they aren't able to find the time to attend a city council meeting, or even vote, for that matter.

Re: America could have $4 lunch bowls like Japan but for zoning laws

#250

Post by danaris »

sharts wrote: post #230
dv_dt wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Protests come when people are pushed into a corner with little other choice. Participation is more prevalent when people have free time in their lives. Our economics has systematically squeezed free time out in favor of more work to most of our workforce, and particularly hard for young people. One reason so many local city policies favor the old, is that they're retired and have the time to participate

Protests are also largely useless.

This is status quo propaganda.

Note that I'm not saying you, yourself, are a proponent of the status quo, deliberately spreading propaganda.

But protests are absolutely not useless.

"waaaah they don't change Trump's mind after a single protest waaaaah" of course not. That's not what they're there to do. That's the win condition, not the only move in the game.*

Protests have a variety of important effects, but let's just focus on two of the big ones, which are closely linked:

1) They tell the other people who disagree with what is going on that they are not alone. That there are others like them out there, and that if they do try to do something (whether that's go to a protest themselves, call their congresspeople, or whatever), it won't be just shouting into the void.

2) They tell the people who agree with what is going on that this is not over. They can't just expect to be greeted as liberators; there are people in their own hometown who think that this is not OK, it shouldn't be allowed to continue, and anyone who supports it can expect at least a side-eye at the supermarket, if not much more serious social shunning.

And no: neither of these lead directly to a change in the policies that are being protested. But that doesn't mean that they're useless, any more than it's useless to, say, release wolves into Yellowstone, if what you care about are some of the myriad downstream effects of a trophic cascade.

* Not, I would note very firmly, that it's a game. This is merely a convenient metaphor.

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