The solution to that is better public transit, not more cars, which would further strain a lower-income family’s finances.

You buy a jacket and boots.

Sounds like you live in a small town with spread out suburbs. Of course you can’t imagine living car free. The place wasn’t designed with that in mind. That said, all of the things you mentioned are mostly issues of convenience. You could live closer to work. You could find a doctor closer to home for your daughter.…

It’s a lot of money, but California brings in $250 billion in taxes every year. We need to push this through and do an honest appraisal of what went wrong (and what went right) when it’s done. Doing new things is hard and many mistakes will be made, but we have to start somewhere and presumably we’ll get better at it…

I mean, he’s right. And I understand the frustration. He’s 38 and wants to win another championship. He doesn’t have time for Mercedes to fuck around. Sounds like they’ve already put another design through the wind tunnel. Seems highly unlikely that a new car could get up and competitive in season, but it’ll at least…

Car infrastructure is bankrupting us.

I’ve flown economy to Japan on multiple occasions. That’s about 14 hours one way. One time on the way back I started feeling sick right as we were boarding. Before we pushed back I was in the bathroom with it coming out both ends. The sinks in there are so shallow that my vomit was just shooting out the other side of…

Still too expensive. A lowest spec Model X for $100k. I think Teslas are ugly, but if they could produce something like the Model X with similar range, AWD, but slower for $60-$70k, I might be interested. I simply do not need to go 0-60 in 3.8 secs in a minivan. It’s dumb.

A new product roll-out designed to pad the bottom lines of the auto companies was half-baked and chock full of consumer hostile omissions? Crazy.

Nah, if the cops won’t do their jobs, we will. Vigilantism is fine if no one gets hurt and the punishment fits the crime.

I’m beginning to suspect you’re kind of historically and geopolitically ignorant.

No, it’s not safe. Recent studies show the new vaccine booster is no more effective than the old one on currently circulating strains. People who are at higher risk should stay home. COVID is no joke. It’s a respiratory AND immune disease. Each infection increases your risk of many different longterm…

No, I made the claim I made: “The countries with the happiest citizens are more correlated to a robust welfare state and low income inequality than either of the two arbitrary features you chose.”

Counterpoint: Countries with a robust private sector combined with a strong, democratically elected central government outsource most of the pain, suffering and misery to citizens of other countries with fewer environmental and labor regulations. The countries with the happiest citizens are more correlated to a robust…

The US doesn’t actually care about spreading democracy, they care about spreading rulers who are friendly with the US and its business interests.

No.

The US is a little further along in the development track, yes. That’s why comparing the two today is an absurd idea undertaken solely for the purpose of disingenuously “winning” an argument.

I’d imagine this will have a negligible if any affect on vehicle purchases. It’s a drop in the ocean compared to the monthly cost to own and run giant SUVs. What’s another $500/year?

Fuel isn’t even taxed enough to pay for necessary infrastructure maintenance, not to mention environmental externalities. 

Yeah, lifting 800 million people out of poverty in 40 years is a pretty remarkable achievement. Central planning has a lot of benefits, like directing economic resources to things that actually benefit citizens instead of simply whatever amasses the greatest fortunes for the fewest people.