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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

#251
post #230
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.

Not when they’re accompanied with large scale strikes as Europeans have found.

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

#252
post #230
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.

Protesting is basically "doing nothing, loudly." It looks virtuous but has almost zero actual affect on policy. Does any politician actually look at a protest and say "Oh, my, look at that, people don't like what I'm doing! Looks like I have to change my mind."

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

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Pretty sure the young people protesting are the ones also voting. But that’s only a small fraction of the total young people.the rest are too busy on TikTok :/

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

#254

Honestly, at this point, may be someone can collect a bunch of like minded individuals and build a city from scratch that ticks all the boxes instead of fighting existing vested interests. Then, hopefully it can be a model for others to review and check. The problem with US or any other country is that too many things that should not be ideological become ideological. So many people would be happy to live in a 1400 s…

Building a city from scratch has been attempted a few times. Disney tried to make a city once and now Musk is trying to do the same. They don't work out.

Musk's city https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbase,_Texas

Disney's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPCOT_(concept)

Also, see the Simpsons's episode "They Saved Lisa's Brain" which, btw, has a very funny guest appearance by Stephen Hawking.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Saved_Lisa%27s_Brain

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

#255
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In Japan, workers rely on healthy lunch bowls for under $4 The title doesn't capture that, but the issue is not that the US can't produce $4 lunches. It's it can't enable cheap(er) healthy lunches

I'm not sure what your point is. Is it about the lunches being specifically healthy ? A rice bowl at Chipotle, for example, is not unhealthy (rice, beans, meat, vegetables). Plenty of restaurant food in the US is perfectly healthy (or, you can look at nutrition facts to know if it is). And if I can take a single US portion size and split it into two lunches that are Japanese-sized portions, then maybe we're getting t…

I think just statistics about how many people are overweight and obese in both countries can already paint a picture that probably japanese food is more healthy. And optimizing for how many calories you can get for $1 is probably also not the best metric to aim for.

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

#256
post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Protests are also largely useless.

Protesting is basically "doing nothing, loudly." It looks virtuous but has almost zero actual affect on policy. Does any politician actually look at a protest and say "Oh, my, look at that, people don't like what I'm doing! Looks like I have to change my mind."

They never change their minds, that's because the police are willing to beat the protesters for them. The Civil Rights movement is an example of (mostly, but not always peaceful) protest that changed things within living memory. Gay rights advances in recent decades definitely owe a lot to demonstrations and public organizing that put the issues into public conversation. Women's suffrage movements also featured many protests. Policy effects are everywhere.

What has no effect pretty much ever is protesting foreign policy, because the majority of people in any country neither care nor know what happens anywhere else.

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

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

You can not. That is not how it works.

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

#258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually yes, that is by design. There is a reason the US had property ownership as a requirement to vote in the constitution. Whether removing that requirement was correct or not is up for debate. But there is a distinction in a democracy between an active citizen and a passive citizen . An active citizen is someone that has skin in the game and is a willing participant in the process. A passive citizen is someone t…

Everyone affected by the laws passed have "skin in the game". Someone renting an apartment and working a job in a community definitely has skin in the game in regards to local tax rates, building regulations, public amenities, etc.

Sure but there’s degrees to this. If you’re a day laborer renting a room at the local motel, it’s a lot easier for you to say “screw this place I’m going to the next town over” than for someone who has their kids enrolled in the highschool and a mortgage.

Everyone has skin in the game but some have way more.

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

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who live in the city for the majority of their time. They should be able to vote. Regardless of their housing situation. In basically all of Europe, voting for local elections is tied to having stable housing.

I don't disagree with you per se, but how would that work in practice? How could you actually tell someone lives there if they don't have an address to back up that claim?

By allowing them to register as citizens of that city

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

#260

Honestly, at this point, may be someone can collect a bunch of like minded individuals and build a city from scratch that ticks all the boxes instead of fighting existing vested interests. Then, hopefully it can be a model for others to review and check. The problem with US or any other country is that too many things that should not be ideological become ideological. So many people would be happy to live in a 1400 s…

Building a city from scratch has been attempted a few times. Disney tried to make a city once and now Musk is trying to do the same. They don't work out. Musk's city https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbase,_Texas Disney's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPCOT_(concept) Also, see the Simpsons's episode "They Saved Lisa's Brain" which, btw, has a very funny guest appearance by Stephen Hawking. https://en.wikipedia.org/wik…

you don't have to build new city from scratch just do city planning and dedicate one outside part of city to high density, high tower residential buildings then let me people decide where they want to live.
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