Oh absolutely! The point is that they can make some people happy, and so whether you—or I, or anyone—am the kind of person who would be made happier by having kids should be a personal choice. However, whether or not you think there’s a positive phenomenological connotation to having kids—i.e., that the experience of…

You’re an idiot.

Take a big-picture view, here. A society in which so few people have children is probably one in which people don’t consider the future to be positive, and even more, they don’t enjoy the present, either.

Wars, famines, plagues, etc., also tend to tank birth rates. People don’t fuck--much less have kids--when they’re…

I tend to be right on the fence on anti/pro-natalism. Yes, pain is inevitable, but pleasure’s not nearly as hard to come by as we like to pretend the universe makes it.

Nonetheless, it should be a personal decision entirely free from external pressure—such as those of the misogyny present in Korea (and Japan, and the…

You say, “massive problems”, I say, “my sister’s 2012 Mazda 3 hatch with the SkyActiv still does fine at 180k miles with almost no maintenance”. Direct injection still not as super-long-term durable as port injection, but it’s also not 2006 anymore.

No one needs even that much power. “It’s an E-Class; it’s not about need.” Well, if you want more power, get the E450. This is a luxury car, after all, not a sport sedan. For a lot of people--and certainly how most people drive most of the time--this is plenty fast; there’s no reason to tolerate worse fuel consumption…

That’s the issue with the “everything must be an SUV or pickup” moment we’re in. These are two vehicle types that (at least hypothetically) exist because they’re functional. Ergo, the box is the point; anything which abrogates that too much is pointless, hence the oddity that is the four-door SUV coupe, or…

As hybrids and especially EVs show, the most efficient way to run an ICE engine is to not run it. My ‘20 Sonata hybrid Blue was among the most efficient cars available when I bought it—and my average so far over ~40k miles is 49mpg—but even the stupid-big Hummer EV is (slightly) more efficient at 54mpge.

Would’ve been good to see some standard hybridization of this powertrain, as Toyota does with the 3.4L in the Sequoia. Getting tired of seeing this hogs on the road without any attempt at greater efficiency.

EV mandates are fine, but there’s still no real momentum in them at this point. What should be mandated is full hybridization. There’s no reason not to make every car/truck/bus a hybrid. Small batteries, huge efficiency gains, no need to provide more infrastructure (which the U.S. is bad at doing, anyway; that’s…

Cars aren’t evil, they just don’t make sense for how we use them. We use them quite literally as mass transportation: to move the masses of people in towns in cities around, whether or not any particular person wants to. Cars are fine, but no one should need to use one on a daily basis just to get around. Conversely,…

I actually see a fair number of Isuzu products—Troopers, Rodeos/Passports—here in the pacific northwest, at least in relation to how many were ever sold. Axioms? Amigos? Only occasionally. Vehicrosses? Not for probably 10 years.

In 100 years time, all this BS about “consumer preference”—as if it’s not a thing practically designed by profit-blinded corporations’ marketing departments—is going to be seen for the frank selfishness that it is. Sunken cities and burning forests all around the world aren’t going look kindly on Americans’ attitudes.…

Correction: Subaru knew it could pander to people’s sense of “I’m a rugged individual”, or their feelings of “I don’t really care what I drive, as long as it’s practical and AWD”, or their satisfaction that a PZEV badge on the back means it’s environmentally friendly even with thoroughly mediocre fuel economy.

Ah, that was my confusion. I knew one of the supersonic liners was constant afterburn; the Tu-144 was a definite hatchet-job of an aircraft, incredible though any SST is.

Yeah, building anything in the Everglades is completely indefensible

I still have two burning questions about supersonic transports:

It seems likely that union shops report OSHA violations more specifically because they have union protection. Just because a violation isn’t reported doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

This is awful. Private flights--especially over short distances--are a climate nightmare; we should be banning them--no matter how wealthy or poor the passengers, no matter how long or short the distance--around the world, not making them more accessible.

Not to mention that other countries—which have not experienced the spike in pedestrian deaths over the past decade that the U.S. has—also have smartphones, and cars with tablets in their dashes.

So annoying people always bring that up as if it explains away the problem.