☭POLITICS☭: Election Season Hell

[johnny two cool]

Board Model UN let’s fucking gooooo

[antipasto]

I got bored before I even finished my nation

[Sorley Boy]

Aug 25, 2024 19:23:16 GMT -5 johnny two cool said:

profit margins for affordable housing are pretty thin, at least from what I’ve seen. If you’re setting some units aside as affordable, then you’re already taking a hit in terms of loan agreements. And then all the lawsuits n delays n shit. A recent mixed-use project with affordable units in a neighborhood north of me was next to a “historic district” (literally the same homes as everywhere else) on the site of an abandoned grocery store. The initial seven stories was just tooooo tall. So it got cut down to five, which eliminated the parking and cut into the already thin profit margins. Neighborhood association still wasn’t pleased — and now they’re bitching about the lack of parking. Some of their genius ideas included something like a two-story building with four condos, which would obviously be a waste of time and money for the city to provide preferential tax cuts and grants for. It’s insane.

That's what I'm saying, if we want to rely on private development to fund responsible housing it needs to be more significantly subsidized, because there's not much profit incentive for the developers. As it stands they end up trying to crowbar more people into overdeveloped suburbs because it's easy to sell high, and I don't think it's NIMBYism per se for people who live in those suburbs to oppose further development without attending infrastructure investment. As far as the kind NIMBYism you're talking about that's obviously another problem to address and a lot of boards have too much power, especially in cities.

[johnny two cool]

Yeah, further subsidies would be great, but feasibility varies (would probably need to be federal). Zoning and regulatory reform has to come along with it. It’s gonna suck for a while before it gets better, one way or the other.

[oatmeal]

Aug 25, 2024 15:17:16 GMT -5 johnny two cool said:

Aug 25, 2024 14:56:25 GMT -5 oatmeal said:

Well I think further taxing property worth over a certain amount and implementing a incremental city tax on wages would prob be more productive than further taxing middle class families who live in surbubs lmao

i don't care about any of this when the answer is danglin in front of your dahmer glasses 

income tax on the highest earners via a city tax

[itii]

Aug 25, 2024 19:53:13 GMT -5 johnny two cool said:

Board Model UN let’s fucking gooooo

I get to be america

[RIP RIDE!!!]

Aug 26, 2024 2:49:40 GMT -5 oatmeal said:

Aug 25, 2024 15:17:16 GMT -5 johnny two cool said:

i don't care about any of this when the answer is danglin in front of your dahmer glasses 

income tax on the highest earners via a city tax

dahmer glasses!

[johnny two cool]

Aug 26, 2024 2:49:40 GMT -5 oatmeal said:

Aug 25, 2024 15:17:16 GMT -5 johnny two cool said:

i don't care about any of this when the answer is danglin in front of your dahmer glasses 

income tax on the highest earners via a city tax

Won’t work

[Talentless Elvis Costello]

Aug 26, 2024 2:57:29 GMT -5 itii said:

Aug 25, 2024 19:53:13 GMT -5 johnny two cool said:

Board Model UN let’s fucking gooooo

I get to be america

dibs on Liechtenstein

[Porch Honky]

Aug 26, 2024 2:57:29 GMT -5 itii said:

Aug 25, 2024 19:53:13 GMT -5 johnny two cool said:

Board Model UN let’s fucking gooooo

I get to be america

[johnny two cool]

[Osama Vinladen Jiménez López🎅🎄]

[cruststache]

Idf just sent 100 bombers into Lebanon, even the soft touch harris will have probably gets us into ww3.

[johnny two cool]

Aug 26, 2024 12:50:58 GMT -5 cruststache said:

Idf just sent 100 bombers into Lebanon, even the soft touch harris will have probably gets us into ww3.

do you know what Congress is and what it does? It might help you develop your perspective here.

[Ass Dan]

He's from the home state of the greatest legislator of the 19th century!

[Aaron]

Aug 26, 2024 12:53:18 GMT -5 johnny two cool said:

Aug 26, 2024 12:50:58 GMT -5 cruststache said:

Idf just sent 100 bombers into Lebanon, even the soft touch harris will have probably gets us into ww3.

do you know what Congress is and what it does? It might help you develop your perspective here.

NO! Copmala will unilaterally bring us into war and I’ll hear nothing to the contrary

[johnny two cool]

“Americans should not have to pay more in rent because a company has found a new way to scheme with landlords to break the law,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “We allege that RealPage’s pricing algorithm enables landlords to share confidential, competitively sensitive information and align their rents. Using software as the sharing mechanism does not immunize this scheme from Sherman Act liability, and the Justice Department will continue to aggressively enforce the antitrust laws and protect the American people from those who violate them.”

“Today’s complaint against RealPage illustrates our corporate enforcement strategy in action. We identify the most serious wrongdoers, whether individuals or companies, and focus our full energy on holding them accountable,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “By feeding sensitive data into a sophisticated algorithm powered by artificial intelligence, RealPage has found a modern way to violate a century-old law through systematic coordination of rental housing prices — undermining competition and fairness for consumers in the process. Training a machine to break the law is still breaking the law. Today’s action makes clear that we will use all our legal tools to ensure accountability for technology-fueled anticompetitive conduct.”

www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-realpage-algorithmic-pricing-scheme-harms-millions-american-renters

[cruststache]

Aug 26, 2024 12:53:18 GMT -5 johnny two cool said:

Aug 26, 2024 12:50:58 GMT -5 cruststache said:

Idf just sent 100 bombers into Lebanon, even the soft touch harris will have probably gets us into ww3.

do you know what Congress is and what it does? It might help you develop your perspective here.

yah i remember the time they stopped bush in Iraq. We have two air craft carriers there now, how many troops on bases. One of them gets hit you think these hawks aren't gonna green light something?

[Thin Lizzy Gulag Graduate]

I just browsed the comments on one of those boomer fb posts that say shit like “gen z doesn’t realize that when they get communism they won’t be able to get their venti latte”

Thousands of comments from boomers genuinely thinking communism is coming and that it’ll mean only black coffee made using reused grounds IF you’re lucky enough to get some coffee. All incredibly confident that they are communism experts and that communism means no coffee. It’s legitimately insane.

[Ass Dan]

You could also get a glut of coffee and like massive shortages of underwear. Though I agree with Muj that Amazon and big data make the risks of central planning much smaller than the mid 20th century.

[cruststache]

Aug 26, 2024 14:21:33 GMT -5 cruststache said:

Aug 26, 2024 12:53:18 GMT -5 johnny two cool said:

do you know what Congress is and what it does? It might help you develop your perspective here.

yah i remember the time they stopped bush in Iraq. We have two air craft carriers there now, how many troops on bases. One of them gets hit you think these hawks aren't gonna green light something?

Remember USS Liberty 🫡

[dmk]

So many dumb Canadians here think we are currently living under communism and that Trudeau gets a personal cut of our tax dollars.

I think next time I hear that I should ask them when the free housing is coming.

[itii]

Man are they gunna be surprised when zoomers start taking their boomer asses to the ovens for government issued zyn pouches

[internetbully]

Aug 26, 2024 13:00:30 GMT -5 Ass Dan said:

He's from the home state of the greatest legislator of the 19th century!

Prussia (Bismarck)?

[internetbully]

Aug 26, 2024 14:33:36 GMT -5 dmk said:

So many dumb Canadians here think we are currently living under communism and that Trudeau gets a personal cut of our tax dollars.

I think next time I hear that I should ask them when the free housing is coming.

Just drop the gloves with em in the Timmies parking lot eh

[NUKE THE INTERNET]

Aug 26, 2024 14:27:29 GMT -5 Thin Lizzy Gulag Graduate said:

I just browsed the comments on one of those boomer fb posts that say shit like “gen z doesn’t realize that when they get communism they won’t be able to get their venti latte”

Thousands of comments from boomers genuinely thinking communism is coming and that it’ll mean only black coffee made using reused grounds IF you’re lucky enough to get some coffee. All incredibly confident that they are communism experts and that communism means no coffee. It’s legitimately insane.

At least they've moved on from avocados?

[johnny two cool]

Problem, research strategy, and findings
We predicted the amount, share, and value of land dedicated to roadways within and across 316 U.S. primary metropolitan statistical areas. Despite the amount and value of land dedicated to roadways, our study provides the first such estimate across a broad range of metropolitan areas. Our basic approach was to estimate roadway widths using a 10% sample of widths provided by the Highway Performance Monitoring System and apply our estimates to the rest of the roadway system. Multiplying estimated widths by segment length and netting out double counting at intersections provided estimates of land area. We also matched roadway segments and areas to existing land value estimates and satellite-based measures of urbanized land. We found that a little less than a quarter of urbanized land—roughly the size of West Virginia—was dedicated to roadway. This land was worth around $4.1 trillion in 2016 and had an annualized value that was higher than the total variable costs of the trucking sector and the total annual federal, state, and local expenditures on roadways. Conducting a back-of-the-envelope cost–benefit analysis, we found that the country likely has too much land dedicated to urban roads.

Takeaway for practice
Federal, state, and local agencies dedicate substantial time, money, and resources to providing roadways. Even with relatively generous assumptions and no external costs from driving, however, we estimated that the average cost of expanding roadways exceeded the benefits by a factor of nearly three when accounting for land value. Policymakers should question policies focused on roadway expansion and consider options to reduce the amount of space dedicated to roadway in favor of more housing, offices, and other land uses. In addition to our findings, we provide a novel data set that academics and policymakers can use to draw their own conclusions about the state of America’s urban roadways.

Guerra, Erick, Gilles Duranton, and Xinyu Ma. “Urban Roadway in America: The Amount, Extent, and Value.” Journal of the American Planning Association (August 5, 2024): 1–15. doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2024.2368260.

[Thin Lizzy Gulag Graduate]

Aug 26, 2024 14:31:15 GMT -5 Ass Dan said:

You could also get a glut of coffee and like massive shortages of underwear. Though I agree with Muj that Amazon and big data make the risks of central planning much smaller than the mid 20th century.

Central planning is the way that every single mega corporation has managed to become what they are. They control their markets/supply and demand to such a granular level that we almost never hear of shortages and prices on most commodities(not luxuries) are never too expensive for most people to afford. Yeah milk and eggs and toilet paper have gone up, but they’re still affordable by people generally. All because these corporations have figured out how to precisely control price and supply in the most efficient, profitable, secure way possible. Walmart and target are literally an example of a centrally planned economy in a bubble under one roof, but could easily be extrapolated out to a national economy level and they pretty much have every single item working class people need or want. If Walmart doesn’t have it, it’s because it’s a specialty, boutique, or niche product. They’re literal proof that central planning is the most efficient, effective way to run an economy.

Obviously centrally planned economies of the past have had issues, like political corruption and bias, outside sanctions or blockades or trade embargoes creating artificial scarcity, etc…but they were still relatively effective when applied fairly. With computers, automating the organization would be much easier and more efficient, and could be easily applied to necessities like food, home goods, housing, infrastructure etc. The mega corporations already do it with success the industrialists and robber barons could have only dreamt of. It can absolutely be applied to a not-for-profit model where essentials and produce/food are produced and distributed as efficiently and cost effectively as possible to ensure no one is unable to afford or access decent food, housing, etc.

[johnny two cool]

Walmart exists because of trucking deregulation (Motor Carrier Act of 1980). See: www.freightwaves.com/news/why-most-of-americas-2-million-long-haul-truck-drivers-arent-unionized


There are lessons for a centrally planned economy you can glean from big retailers. Namely, the state would need to invest considerable resources into data collection and logistics. But calling Walmart a centrally planned economy is like calling Hitler a Bolshevik.

[The Last Online Marxist]

WHen communism comes I will ban K-Cups