Asklemmy

50902 readers

786 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 6 years ago

MODERATORS

Have you ever traveled outside of America? (Not to Canada or Mexico) (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 days ago by lunatique@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

141 comments fedilink hide all child comments

If you don't know less than 50% of Americans have a passport. The ones who don't, I really see the limitation in their thinking. They never saw that most of the world is in fact freer than them, has a better system in place for their people, and doesn't have some of the major problems that America has. I'm currently in a country where over 90% of items are made in that country. America (made in China) can't comprehend this efficiency. P.S. I'm American

The thing that gets me though is how dangerous many Americans say other parts of the world is without having ever been there lol. I travel and I'll tell you America is the MOST dangerous country outside of warzones. Yes even more dangerous that Arab countries for women. Lol I know that propaganda is in a lot of Americans minds.

OK so who's actually been outside the country and can talk geopolitics and actually know from experience what they are talking about?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It is a lot more complicated than that.

Most early 20th century mass transit networks were private businesses subject to government regulation. Most of the government regulation focused on controlling fares, so there was a lot of deferred maintenance. This was made worse as some mass transit systems were built to be a loss leader to support selling real estate.

Several mass transit networks went bankrupt due to the combination of fares not covering expenses and reduced demand due to completion with cars. Most American cities weren't equipped to take on subsiding or taking over mass transit, so they let the existing networks die.

[–] lunatique@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Fair point about the nuance but this was a dumb mistake the government should have put development into them and expanded now they are regretting it. They think the solution to traffic was going to be Musk boring tunnels for Tesla's. It's like they forgot railroads exist

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It was a dumb mistake, but it was a dumb mistake that had broader political support than the narrative that "car companies destroyed mass transit" suggests. It is important to recognize how a broad base of support was created in order to fight it in its current interations.

And I completely agree that Musk tunnels are a shit technology and that actual trains need to be built. I just think it requires understanding how politics functions rather than just accepting a corporate bogeyman.

[–] lunatique@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

GM did play a very large role in it though so you can say both but it def was pushed by the car industry to dismantle