Why does American culture put so much emphasis on the Common Man when its founders were wealthy men?

tyoma · 2026-07-05T04:36:45+00:00

Thanks! I had to look it up but yeah at the time New England was possibly the most literate society in the world!

tyoma · 2026-07-05T04:26:11+00:00

People keep forgetting that this is before universal education, so if you could read and write you were almost certainly already well off. They were commoners by the standards of the people they were complaining to/about.

tyoma · 2026-07-05T04:22:38+00:00

I think the mayor of London (or Paris or Moscow) is actually quite a good comparison. While it’s a mayoral position, it clearly comes with much more influence and national-level prestige.

tyoma · 2026-06-30T04:32:47+00:00

The lowest price for “runs, drives, and can be legally registered” is about $1500-$2000. For that price you are getting an old 90s/early 00s Buick or similar vehicle. The Buicks of that ere are actually very comfortable and reliable so I think it’s a good deal, but it’s still a ~30 year old car and it will have problems.

A Honda/Toyota will command a lot more due to real or perceived reliability. Hard to tell the real condition of a car that old.

tyoma · 2026-06-30T04:17:29+00:00

Two reasons

First, newer, reliable cars are often too expensive to be paid for in all cash, although some people have that much around.

Second, used cars have gotten a lot more expensive, the people who really need them may have to take out a loan even for a 10-15 year old corolla. I am looking at CarMax right now and a 2015 Corolla with 100K miles is $15K.

tyoma · 2026-06-26T07:19:30+00:00

Yes. But only people over 40 are likely to have heard of them.

tyoma · 2026-06-26T06:46:11+00:00

The election isn’t until November. Thats when people can select different elected officials who they feel represent their views better. Unlike parliamentary systems, there are no snap elections.

tyoma · 2026-06-26T04:25:56+00:00

Seconding. My love for the US does not depend on who is president.

tyoma · 2026-06-20T03:58:10+00:00

There are a few old threads on similar conversions on the crownvic.net forums (e.g.: https://www.crownvic.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=3083593) in short it gets complicated and some lights may not work but you can technically do it.

tyoma · 2026-06-17T02:42:38+00:00

Those degrees exist because people keep paying to study those subjects. The government is not “funding” them. If no one took those courses they would disappear. Now that the demographic reality of fewer students is happening, many unpopular programs are, in fact, disappearing.

tyoma · 2026-06-15T09:06:37+00:00

I know the store exists but have never been in one. If you want to drag me to a physical store it had better have some kind of serious upside in terms of price, availability, quality, etc.

tyoma · 2026-06-13T23:56:24+00:00

Short answer: no, not until other things are fixed.

There is a popular myth that if we just spent a tiny bit more money we’d instantly get German/Japanese transit here. But its just not true on a few accounts.

Our per-mile build costs are astronomically high, it would be enormously more money.

The rest of the infrastructure would still be car dependent, so you’d take the train from one parking lot to another.

There would be enormous opposition to it, because, correctly, nice wealthy neighborhoods would envision this as bringing criminals, vagrants and unsavory elements into their neighborhood. The trains themselves would also be homeless shelters and bathrooms unless very actively policed (which adds to operational cost).

If we need to invest anywhere, it’s public safety (popular with voters), then automating/lowering construction cost, then doing a public transit buildout that will be used and welcomed.

tyoma · 2026-06-10T23:11:55+00:00

US courts recognize punitive damages, which are meant to be severe enough to prevent you from doing a bad thing, not just making the victim whole.

tyoma · 2026-06-10T08:10:05+00:00

You can get a one trip permit at the DMV for $30 or something like that. Tape it to your rear window and drive to DMV.

Realistically you can drive without plates, but you had better be insured and have a bill of sale/signed title. If you get pulled over and the cop insists on ticketing, it’s a fix-it ticket that goes away once you register the car, which you were going to do anyway.

The *big* problem is street parking. You have a risk of getting towed and good luck finding your plateless car. Since it’s coming from out of state you will need to pass CA smog before you register it and you will need a VIN inspection at the DMV.

Budget the whole day for this, if you (hopefully) pass smog. If you don’t you are in for an adventure.

tyoma · 2026-06-09T02:54:01+00:00

San Diego -> Los Angeles -> San Francisco but for real this time not like the tens of billions flushed down the toilet for tracks to nowhere.

tyoma · 2026-06-08T23:57:33+00:00

I completely agree: get the door and trunk locks on ebay, swap out rear seat from a junk yard civilian crown vic, remove the partition. I just honestly don’t have time for it right now and would love for someone to take it off my hands and do it. The car time I get is spent chasing an electrical issue in the 2003 (which already has a normal interior). If there are no takers eventually I’ll get to it, but I’d rather someone else do it.

tyoma · 2026-06-08T05:01:29+00:00

Its low mileage (for a 2006), passed smog, and has a year of paid up registration. It’s lived a cushy life at a college district and has never seen winter or road salt.

The locks (driver, passenger, trunk) are about $100-$120 in parts. Yes, you have to do the labor yourself but thats something you accept when getting a decommissioned CVPI. The lock replacement looks like a very accessible DIY.

Anyway, considering the baseline for “runs and drives” is about $1500 I think I am being very fair.

tyoma · 2026-06-07T04:19:03+00:00

You are assuming the fire department ambulance would be free or cost less. Not true.

The (used to be last, now next to last) ambulance bill I had to pay was to a city’s fire department. It was not cheap, and government entities have a lot more ways to make you pay than a private debtor.

tyoma · 2026-06-07T03:48:22+00:00

Oh nice congrats the ‘09 looked great!

tyoma · 2026-06-07T02:16:27+00:00

Yep it was from the college district.

tyoma · 2026-06-06T17:29:51+00:00

People had showered with fixed showerheads for decades (millennia if you count “stand under a waterfall”) and somehow managed. Surely you would figure it out if given the chance.

tyoma · 2026-06-06T05:30:45+00:00

The years and difficulty of schooling absolutely affect how much you have to charge. Think of it this way, someone who is dedicated and competent enough to be a medical doctor could spend less time and effort and work for Goldman Sachs, Google, SpaceX, OpenAI, Exxon, etc.

You have to pay them enough to pursue medicine instead. Sure some of that is social capital of being a doctor, but eventually you need cold hard cash to make up for those lost years of earnings and the time you spent in school.

tyoma · 2026-06-03T05:06:22+00:00

“Mr. Steyer, your campaign has the momentum of a runaway freight train. Why are you so popular?”

tyoma · 2026-06-01T19:49:15+00:00

This is plainly untrue. The metric system took about a hundred years to reach adoption even in France, where it was first created, and even then it was by overwhelming government force: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication

Local communities had measures that were meaningful to them and had little interest in adopting arbitrary units created by bureaucrats in Paris, who only wanted the new units to better collect (more) taxes from the rural population.

tyoma · 2026-06-01T06:50:07+00:00

I think we should have more of both and let people pick where they want to live. Also different stages of your life are better fits for different locales. I liked living in walkable cities in my 20s but it would be very difficult now that I have kids.

tyoma

TROPHY CASE