seems to me that climate change is going to be too expensive, I think we should pick the substantially cheaper option of ending car culture and fossil fuel hegemony
"you'll never get people out of their cars"
o rly
In this photo: $2 million worth of destroyed cars, $2 million worth of street, and a $25,000 bus shelter with its bus safely out of picture in the storage yard.
climate resilience is *not* rebuilding the street, it's cutting your losses and blocking it off for *everything but the bus*
do this, and the cost of "recovery" is:
zero dollars
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And I’m not talking about just at the national or state level. I’m talking about in your city/town, where you live.
I’ll demonstrate: My city of Berkeley spends about $200 million a year trying to re-pave the streets. But we’re $1 billion behind! The streets are crumbling.
Why?
Because cars *are a bad idea.* They *do not and can not and will never pay for themselves.* They *perpetually steal funding and land that you own and …
Prevent the construction of safe streets, bus/train service, and bike lanes.
I don’t believe Democrats and Republicans are remotely the same but one large coalition straddles both parties & demands wildly unfair/unsustainable/destructive policy:
The NIMBYs.
In cities & suburbs alike, Republican & Democratic NIMBYs agree: “No more housing here.”
Given the existential nature of housing, whichever party casts out this coalition and energizes the majority — who WANT walkable communities and affordable cities — will dominate American politics.
Neither party is currently capable of this.
The Republicans are beholden to violent, reactionary white Christianists for votes, and the oil industry for money.
The Democrats actually have the *voting* coalition and the values to race ahead on housing, but are mostly cowed by angry suburban NIMBYs and wealthy NIMBY donors.
A high-end but reasonable estimate of cross country high speed rail in the United States is ~ $5 trillion, or about ~ 85% of what we spend on cars every year.
Spread that $5 trillion over 20 year bonds to get HSR cost.
During that 20 years we'll spend ~ $120 trillion on cars.
I know I'm just a stupid liberal but even my addled brain can see that $5 trillion is probably a lot less than $120 trillion
Broken part of car brain is part that budgets for them in silos: Oh, highways are cheap, just $200B a year, or oh, cars are cheap, most people only spend $9,500 a year.
But the "cost" of driving is highways + car + fuel + widespread death and destruction.
People wondering how we lost Roe - this is how we lost Roe:
Urban areas in the United States have lowest voter participation in local elections imaginable. Your school board doesn’t suck because government is objectively broken; it sucks because most people don’t participate.
Republicans participate. They have a vision of a white Christianist caliphate, and are executing that vision.
You can watch and maintain ironic detachment, right up til they’re at your door.