Statements like that are why I tend to follow the idea that any government service should be provided to every citizen equally without exception.
We spend so much money in the US trying to make sure only the “correct” people are receiving things like welfare or Medicaid. If we just dropped the restrictions we’d likely be fairly close to being able to afford covering everybody with those programs.
This is exactly what Luxembourg did with their public transit recently. They realized they were spending more in upkeep/salaries/HR/computer systems/policy/etc, and just ripped it all out, and made it free.
That’s the reasoning behind an Universal Basic Income system: deciding who needs financial aid and who doesn’t, is more expensive than just giving everyone a fixed monthly payment and calling it a day.
That is, except for those who think nobody should get anything for free, and are trying to rip out the aid systems altogether.
They do that regardless of whether there are fares. In my neck of the woods, the suburbanites have fought like hell against installing light rail to connect downtown with the greater metro area because they’re worried about the “crime train”. Who cares if it would improve commuting for the majority of the population?
For God’s sake. This is just getting exhausting and depressing. Worry about the fucking economy, not rainbow t-shirts, you embarrassment to the human species
I’m so fucking tired of this culture war bullshit. This is what my tax dollars are getting wasted on? No. I don’t approve of that. There should be a way for me to say “If you’re gonna keep wasting my money with this farce, I’m out. No more money for you.”
Wait, what? Target barely even had a Pride campaign this year. They started rolling it out early, then backpedaled so fast and so far that there was basically nothing in June. Certainly nothing that classified as “sexual” to a sane human being. Also, if they’re still claiming there was anything actually trans-body-friendly in children’s sizes, that is pure fiction. As a trans, queer person, I would give Target maybe a C- for LGBTQ+ - friendliness, and that’s giving them the benefit of the doubt. These scumbags are not only morally bankrupt, they’re barking up the wrong tree.
I’m so sick of these lying, perverted assholes. This isn’t “their opinion”, this is stochastic terrorism deliberately meant to put LGBT people in physical danger by associating them with pedophilia. It’s the exact kind of hatred the Nazis fomented against Jewish people. They know it’s not true, lying is a means to an end.
These people are genuine extremists who have to be stopped. It infuriates me that so many people still try to play the “both sides” bullshit. Democrats aren’t openly talking about eliminating entire groups of people, like Mark Rubio did.
The Jobs act of 2021 is dumping tons of money into rail services and rail infrastructure at many different levels. And businesses are doing what they can to get a piece of that spending.
Would be great to see some sustained support for this kind of infrastructure. I had the opportunity to go to Tokyo, and one of the things that amazed me the most was the (train-based) public transportation system.
In Chicago the whole system was designed for you to pay before you get on. There’s a turnstile to get into the station, and you can only get on the front of the bus and tap before you enter. So fares are actually a large percentage of the budget (I looked it up, it’s about 35% pre-pandemic, post pandemic the numbers got all weird). I have no idea why the system is designed in SF where you can essentially “jump” on for free and never pay.
Speed, space, and cost usually. With busses it is way faster to board if you can just open all the doors at a busy stop and everyone paid on the platform or online. They just get on and sit down and go. The busses in Chicago let you pay by credit card (tap) to get on, which is not particularly common in the US, which helps with this.
It’s also much more expensive and challenging to build a system separated by fare and non fare zone. CTA runs a very old system that was designed ages ago so its pretty easy to keep it that way. Many newly built systems are dealing with expensive right of way acquisition and high construction cost. It’s way easier just to slap a few pay stations around and call it a day. Most people pay to ride voluntarily anyway, and those that can’t afford it weren’t going to pay if there was a fence in the way.
Source: enthusiastic about public transit and city politics, feel free to correct me please
Certainly not as egregious as some of the news coming out of Thomas’ and Alito’s camps, but this is still not a great look. Seriously, how hard is it to at least maintain the appearance of impartiality as a SC Justice? Can’t they write books to enrich themselves after their tenure?
Really just seems like blurring the likes of what assistants are allowed to do. There’s no kickbacks or anything for her work on the court. Public speaking and book tours are typical. Her tenure doesn’t have an end date.
I was curious about 30-year mortgage origination volumes in Florida, but best I found quickly was from the CFPB in 2019, so it’s useless given the pandemic, supply-chain issues and inflation since.
I can’t imagine anyone there is getting a 30-year today fully expecting to pay it off, retire and die never having to move again.
Like, who would be buying these people’s homes that they’re leaving in FL in order to get a new place somewhere else?
in all probability, a state authority will eventually need to eat the cost and help resettle a large number of people currently living in Florida. whether that’ll be Florida or the US government (or another party) remains to be seen.
I have a feeling the invisible hand is going to force an about face for the GOP on climate sooner than they’d like. Yes, for now they can rail against woke companies for making decisions that improve shareholder returns, but it’s cartoonish already what with the weather of late — and I’m sure what’s to come will involve blaming residents for leaving when there are no insurance companies left willing to touch Florida (point on the map where the bad man …).
Problem is, residents have different thresholds than businesses, and once commercial insurance starts to decline in availability, no amount of rhetoric is going to fix the grocery stores closing down because they can’t get insurance.
Insurance is ultimately a game of musical chairs. For now, there are so many companies and policy types that it’s the boring part at the beginning where everyone mocks the loser but there really aren’t any stakes. The mockery phase will end as companies increasingly become the last holdouts and shareholders start asking why everyone else left but we’re forecasting blue skies.
Insurance is ultimately a game of musical chairs. For now, there are so many companies and policy types that it’s the boring part at the beginning where everyone mocks the loser but there really aren’t any stakes. The mockery phase will end as companies increasingly become the last holdouts and shareholders start asking why everyone else left but we’re forecasting blue skies.
oh yeah–and the thing is for residents it’s already still really bad. there are people on insurance company number 4 in 4 years (or who have two insurance companies because one has to cover one thing and the other covers everything else), and the state is actively trying to disincentivize joining the lender of last resort because they can’t take on that many policies and it’ll kill the remaining insurers. a bad hurricane this year might genuinely be the thing which kicks off the permanent death spiral here–the market needs years of blue skies to “stabilize”.
Oh, absolutely. I think of it as more of a domino effect than butterfly. What we don’t know is how many dominoes the next one to fall will touch. The actuaries at Farmers determined that N events of X size in Y timeframe make these policies undesirable, but it tells us nothing about what N+1 means to other divisions of Farmers, let alone what happens at other companies with their own Xs and Ys.
Well, each major insurer that leaves makes the state more undesirable for everyone that’s left. Each one of these insurers had their share of the “bad” business and now the ones who are left have to sift through the applicants to try to figure out who is safe to insure and who is going to cost them their ability to continue doing business. So with every insurer that leaves, those undesirable risks who pushed them out end up more and more concentrated with the other carriers. I would expect to see more and more of this.
Anybody voting for GOP should really consider whether they want to live in FL because if they have their way the entire country will be exactly like FL. “Oh but MY representatives will only do the things that are good.” No, they won’t. That isn’t how they operate.
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