It’s not just that, but yeah, some changes aren’t incentivized by quarterly profits. The Chinese government did help with planning and incentives to help manufacturers transition to new technology and to build out the supply chains they would need.

Now they’ve made the transition to new technology, established supply chains, scaled up, and have strong competition to keep progressing rapidly.

US government tried at various points, only to have progress thrown away by the next administration. So now we have protectionism. Consumers pay more while legacy manufacturers milk obsolete technology for a few more quarters of profit……. While losing any hope of competing globally

YEAH CAPITALISM - no competition allowed. Protect us from those damn commies …… and their free market competition

Yeah, we have all sorts of trains, at least for freight, but no “bullet”. How did that happen?

Technically there’s Acela - this morning I watched a video where someone used their gps to catch Acela hitting its top speed of 160mph. High speed rail! Technically. For a few minutes

You’re using the wrong verb tense here. All of that used to be true, but a lot of the current chaos and destruction goes toward reducing this power.

We painted ourselves into a corner here throwing away advantages left and right thinking we’ll always be able to influence or economically coerce other countries, but now we seem to be throwing that away as well, just to be jackasses

I still say that is the real problem with Biden’s strategy. So many of the good things done then were long term improvements where we needed to stay the course. Then people got impatient and voted for the chaos we have now

And that’s going to be a huge problem win for the future. Just like American corporations who can no longer think or plan beyond the next quarter, American government can no longer think or plan beyond 2 years.

Our most needed fixes are long term, systemic fixes. Not just single payer healthcare, ubi, ssa, but all sorts of infrastructure (power generation and transmission, transportation, development, water, new technology, science, education). Everywhere I turn we seem to be building beyond what we can afford while having no plan to maintain what is there. We didn’t bring a ladder but keep digging this grave deeper thinking we’ll get out somehow

The problem is it’s no longer peanuts. The debt is larger than gdp and the debt payments are the largest government budget item.

We’re already in a crisis of not being able to afford anything and the debt is large enough to crowd that out.

For sure, tax cuts for the wealthy are a huge part of it, but so has the recent destruction of our economy and trade, random use of the military.

FYI - I believe Bill Clinton mostly grew his way out of debt. Hold things steady while growing the economy (so debt is lower percentage), bringing in more tax income, and lowering interest rates. We’re doing the opposite of all three

When they’re not committing genocide they have a pretty good software and software security industry for a small country

But at least the extreme wealthy are paying less in taxes than any time since taxes began

/s

deleted by creator

you’re here in the US?

I’ve seen people here describe it as the most European part of the US, but yeah.

I do see it - straight and wide roads have more distracted drivers, more speeders, more dangers, especially for pedestrians and cyclists. But we also have a lot of narrow, winding roads with utility poles right on the edges, deer warnings, etc. you have to pay attention

Yep, lots of these where I live. My civic was a problem, but my Subaru had enough acceleration to make it easer. Now I have an EV and a habit of hanging back on the ramp since my EV will make the guy in front of me appear to be standing still

Nope. Even with his name, nope. Even with hints at some of his music, nope. So I listened, nope. It is not the kind of music I would ever listen to nor do I follow celebrity “news”

Seriously, that’s why I always just accepted the approximation of 45mph …. The lowest speed you can smoothly drive in the top gear.

But you can hear when the engine is going too slow, when you’re potentially causing more harm than good. Anyone using a standard transmission knows where their shift points are and intentionally going significantly below that is counterproductive

Just pulling more people over for speeding is how you turn it into a revenue generating exercise. Law enforcement’s goal should be improving safety, not maximizing revenue.

Designing roads to encourage people to drive an appropriate speed is more effective, even when the road blocks aren’t staffed.

Note: but I’ll fight against destructive speed bumps, maybe all speed bumps. They’re usually just annoying and damaging without really helping. It should also not be a goal to damage my car if I drive at the speed the rest of the road is designed for. Heck, a speed bump warning may be more effective. Either way: fix the road the right way

Are there workers? If there are workers, slow the heck down, keep them safe. If there are workers, it shouldn’t even be a question

If someone’s willing to stay behind you that long, they’re not the car to worry about. They have patience and caution.

This might be me. We have a lot of narrow and winding roads where it’s really not safe for me to give the clearance you deserve. But waiting another 30 seconds really doesn’t impact me. Most drivers are more aggressive about passing cyclists

Just to troll …… when I used to cycle regularly, they did care. All the cars were too damn slow and wouldn’t get out of the way. I hated some sections of towns where I had to slow down

My closest call was an elderly woman who misjudged my speed. She passed me but then immediately slowed for a turn without realizing I was there and couldn’t brake as sharply. Worked out though: I was able to brake enough to turn inside her and avoid the accident, and my brakes shrieked like a banshee so she knew what she did

Right, this is one of those things where I seemed to have a very different experience than many Americans …. But we have older roads that are narrow and winding. The towns were all built out before cars and never really got to the “stroad” stage of dystopia. All those “design elements” come for free