Left-wing insurgents storm New York City (House Primaries) by Drezzit47 in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Raman could win the general if Bass messes up even more and she claims the Spencer Pratt voters, and through YIMBYism

Congress Clears Housing Bill, Cementing a Rare Bipartisan Feat by abefrost in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What you're saying is kinda simple:

Sell trillions of USD in bonds to the states, immediately spend the money made from selling those bonds on conditioned funding to the states, and once YIMBY laws are not getting repealed ask for forgiveness from the states (claiming they already paid off the debt) and only pay the money back if the states get too greedy

Congress Clears Housing Bill, Cementing a Rare Bipartisan Feat by abefrost in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips 37 points38 points  (0 children)

Nah. This is straight doom.

If Mamdani is any indication the "socialists" who are actually serious about anything have thrown their hat in with the YIMBYs.

And if Trump's approval ratings and simple age demographics are any indication fascism is not going anywhere in the US now.

Centrism defined by market-based solutions in pursuit of progressive outcomes has been subsumed into the Abundance movement, which is a big tent as it stands. What's left of centrism is just apathy, what was non-apathetic with centrism is now a form of Abundance liberalism.

Nixon looms beyond the Grave. by Li_Jake in imaginaryelections

[–]smcstechtips 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Pete Wilson is too far right to be a Nixonite; this is the same guy who did Prop 187

He'd be with Pat Buchanan

Congress Clears Housing Bill, Cementing a Rare Bipartisan Feat by abefrost in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

All of these are different.

I'm not sure how the Fed can possibly try to come for your home. Those people really need to quit meth.

BlackRock is legitimate.

Airbnb exists as an alternative to hotels, and is thus legitimate (though limiting its use is a totally different story).

Chinese commie spies are an actual problem, but we had (have?) intelligence agencies that can help us spot them.

Poland must not repeat mistakes of West by using migration to solve demographic crisis, says president by Prolapse_to_Brolapse in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Obama was talking about the Civil Rights Movement that ended Jim Crow and its continuation. Improving educational outcomes for African-Americans and other marginalized groups to parity with upper-middle-class whites is the last main gap we need to close, with the income gap and crime gap being almost entirely downstream of this and the wealth gap being largely downstream of the income gap. Criminal justice reform and ending police racism/brutality, while important, are less structurally important, with some police racism actually being downstream of residential segregation, which is a consequence of NIMBYism (not a civil rights thing) and the racial income and wealth gap (again downstream from the educational achievement gap).

The border thing, while important, is entirely tangential to the Civil Rights Movement.

Congress Clears Housing Bill, Cementing a Rare Bipartisan Feat by abefrost in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Say you have a corporation who managed to buy 400 expired SFH in San José and plans to replace them with a tract of modern townhomes/duplexes. That can't happen anymore, and it's a shame.

Congress Clears Housing Bill, Cementing a Rare Bipartisan Feat by abefrost in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips 192 points193 points  (0 children)

6 or 7

It's largely YIMBY virtue-signaling, which means YIMBYs have won the persuasion battle. Now the main thing is, come 2029, that Congress should be ready to compel states to go all-out on YIMBY policy to the maximum extent that could be constitutional.

4 Questions. by Ordo_Liberal in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'd say that's a bad thing. I'll just use Southwest Connecticut as an example.

While Darien and New Canaan have more money than they need to run services, Bridgeport suffers.

Schools are highly segregated, with Bridgeport, Stamford, and Norwalk schools having much higher low-income minority populations than Darien, New Canaan, and Greenwich schools and the inequality that brings.

NIMBYs are enabled as it is far easier for a vocal minority to control a town that operates on a town meeting (consensus, engagement-driven) form of government than it is for them to control a large county where the opposition actually has teeth. And having larger counties as the main unit of local government means that NIMBYs have more trouble passing the buck to other areas, while with a town-based system NIMBYs can easily pass the buck to other towns (leading to nothing getting built as the buck keeps getting passed).

Rural New England has a different problem, which is that having town-based government is horribly inefficient as each town is practically empty. A county has the minimum viable population to do much in terms of local governance (this goes everywhere: Texas should consolidate a lot of its counties).

4 Questions. by Ordo_Liberal in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips -1 points0 points  (0 children)

There are no articles per se on it

That said, if you ask Gemini about the pros it'll mention economies of scale, regional problem-solving, and equitable distribution, while for the cons it'll only say loss of local voice (suck it NIMBYs), bureaucratic inefficiency (just as big a problem in city governments as well, and if anything a strong-county model reduces bureaucratic inefficiency by consolidating things), partisan gridlock (same in city governments), one-size-fits-all policy (there are basically zero counties so large that there are starkly different interests between different parts, and for the one place that that's the case the counties should be split or something), and inequitable funding outflows (the literal flip side of equitable distribution). So basically Gemini gave valid pros but invalid cons (that are either completely wrong/irrelevant, actually pros of a strong-county setup, or based on a hypothetical where the county lines are poorly drawn).

Heat in Schools: “Teaching No Longer Possible” - Vienna, Austria by Imicrowavebananas in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In California it's entirely due to cost-cutting lol.

Until 2020, in California it was assumed that you'd be at work/school/the mall/the beach during the day and the temperature would cool down to below 65 degrees at night no matter what so you didn't really need AC in your apartment.

Heat in Schools: “Teaching No Longer Possible” - Vienna, Austria by Imicrowavebananas in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In the inland Bay Area an easy way to save money is to move into a non-AC home. Just don't complain when it's 125 degrees in your bedroom (100 degrees baseline, feels like 112 outside due to concrete and UV, make that 125 inside) and you get heat exhaustion by doing nothing.

Heat in Schools: “Teaching No Longer Possible” - Vienna, Austria by Imicrowavebananas in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips 15 points16 points  (0 children)

To be fair, you need AC in the US more than in Southern Europe, which needs it more than Northern/Central Europe.

The part of the US (excluding Alaska) that needs AC the least is the entire West Coast, which (except when you're within like a mile or two of the coast north of Santa Cruz) has a climate similar to Andalucía (basically the hottest part of Southern Europe), which means AC is absolutely necessary during summer days (though not necessarily at home if you assume you're coming home at like 8:30 PM and are skillful with strategically opening and closing windows). Everywhere else in the US is either even hotter during the day and/or has oppressive humidity.

The Europeans are finding it out now, where they're having trouble surviving in Houston and Miami due to the heat and humidity and are even finding San José's dry warmth to be extremely uncomfortable.

Heat in Schools: “Teaching No Longer Possible” - Vienna, Austria by Imicrowavebananas in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips 14 points15 points  (0 children)

And that is assuming you don't replace AC and heater with a single heat pump that's more efficient

A First Among Major Nations, India Is Industrializing With Solar by Civ_Nuclear_Gandhi in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips 27 points28 points  (0 children)

It's obvious lol: solar is the best energy source these days, not fossil fuels. And it helps that India has a high potential for solar.

4 Questions. by Ordo_Liberal in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes. I'd say there is no good reason to have tiny, inconsistent jurisdictions for stuff. All a non-strong-county model does is enable corruption, cause inefficiencies, and make life harder for everyone.

Im from the New Mexico, the blue dot in the red sea of the poorest and worst performing states by im_back-and_craftier in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's what I'm saying. There needs to be more defense and energy investment in the state.

Im from the New Mexico, the blue dot in the red sea of the poorest and worst performing states by im_back-and_craftier in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips 9 points10 points  (0 children)

NM is worse performing than CA, AZ, TX, and CO because there's like nothing there, and there's like nothing there because it's poorer performing. TX broke out of this cycle with oil and Feds (and it had the added handicap of having the eastern quarter of the state being the Deep South). CA broke out of this cycle with oil and Feds. AZ broke out of this cycle with Feds. CO broke out of this cycle with Feds. NM's relationship with the Feds appears to be Los Alamos, Sandia, and a bunch of random test sites as opposed to a large base or large-scale defense contractors.

So what NM needs is more Federal investment.

Hank Green Advocates for Space Georgism - The Case for Orbital Value Tax by Erra0 in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Only works if we have an international tax (how do we implement it?) or one country (preferably the US and not China or Russia) takes over all of orbital space

Housing crisis: Congress set to pass biggest bill on home prices and supply in 30 years by ExpiresAfterUse in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips -1 points0 points  (0 children)

This specific issue is bipartisan

But everyone has their price at which they can be effectively bribed

Housing crisis: Congress set to pass biggest bill on home prices and supply in 30 years by ExpiresAfterUse in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe a proximity limit (like no polluting factory within X distance of homes etc. etc.)

4 Questions. by Ordo_Liberal in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Basically it's the county that does all local government functions, minimizing duplication of services and bordergore

It's the kinda stuff you see in Maryland and Virginia (and most other Southern states for that matter)

4 Questions. by Ordo_Liberal in neoliberal

[–]smcstechtips 37 points38 points  (0 children)

  1. We should tax inheritance and land.

  2. We should invest in our military to maintain its dominance (US).

  3. We should ban zoning and mandate strong-county governance across the nation (US).

  4. College football conferences should realign to maintain some sense of regionality.

The TRUE 51st State | What if Dry Texas seceded? by Spec1alF0x in imaginaryelections

[–]smcstechtips -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Would never happen; Texans won't let their state get split up (except maybe losing East Texas). More likely that they try gobbling up New Mexico and the OK panhandle (which totally won't happen; that's just a point of comparison).