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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 5th, 2023

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  • Well, theres “working” and theres “working well”. Capitalism is not working so well anymore and its likely going to work worse as time goes on. more things will become automated, wealth inequality (and therefore a gap in political power) will grow, and companies will keep expecting increased growth in a world of limited(and in some cases, decreasing) resources. Capitalism currently “works” in the sense that its making resources move around, but thats about all its doing for regular, non rich, non well off people(and often is not doing even that much for them). It’s simply not sustainable when unregulated, thats why we need a well regulated economy.




  • I’m mostly just responding to your points, but if I’m trying to make any argument its that mile per mile train infrastructure is cheaper than road infrastructure when you add up all of the costs, especially the ones people normally dont consider including vehicle maintinance, extra land and infrastructure for parking, more policing, gas, time wasted on longer commutes, ect. I’m also trying to point out that the reason we can’t have nice things is because we have chosen the wrong priorities as a society, thats why we are stuck in a loop where we try to solve our car problems with more cars and car infrastructure instead of addressing the root cause of the problem.


  • “* all of the factors you just listed also apply to railways”

    • massive Walmart style parking lots don’t factor if your urban planning is centered around public transit, and parking is definately one of the highest hidden costs of road infrastructure.

    “* since railways are more expensive to construct and maintain than roadways, there are more cases in which a railway couldn’t pay for itself versus a roadway”

    • yes, when people stubbornly refuse to use rail infrastructure or when rail/transit infrastructure is prioritized less than roads/car based transportation then of course its going to be less economically viable. Economies of scale and induced demand are a huge factor here.

    “* why would a company build a private road when the government will do it for them?”

    • good question, and yet we still have private roads and tollroads.