Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You stated that public transportation isn't viable even when the density is there... huh??? If that's the case, I'd love to see the reams of statistics ya'all are sitting on.
I said no such thing. I said that the economic model under which public transit currently operates is not viable. Show me the quote....
Here's a statistic for you: the city of Seattle spent $200 million on a shiny new monorail system before voters finally realized it was a scam and pulled the plug. Miles of track laid for that $200 million: 0.0.
Thank god public education is established in this country. I truly believe we wouldn't be able to get it today if it didn't already exist. The con men and dupes would line up in droves and scream about how public education would be the death of freedom and all that is holy.
Yeah, the scaremongering from the business community and their media lackeys is really effective propaganda.
I am sure the Danes regret deeply that they fought for that $17.30 minimum wage now that their Big Macs cost $0.29 more than in the US.
Right -- I laugh at how quickly conservatives forget about market forces when you talk about wage increases. If you raised the minimum wage the cost of a burger would triple, they scream. Oh really? You think people would suddenly be willing to pay $15 for a hamburger? You don't think a guy down the street would gladly sell one for $5 instead? A little bit of profit is better than no profit. Sure, you can't support a super rich elite class of international jet setters who own everything if everyone in the country is making a living wage, but those are the breaks. No no, you just dont' understand economics silly liberal, they say. Well, who do I believe? You or my lying eyes? a burger in Denmark doesn't costs that much more than in the US despite the $20 min. wage.
I said no such thing. I said that the economic model under which public transit currently operates is not viable. Show me the quote....
Here's a statistic for you: the city of Seattle spent $200 million on a shiny new monorail system before voters finally realized it was a scam and pulled the plug. Miles of track laid for that $200 million: 0.0.
You need me to show you a quote you made a few pages back? Um, ok. Your quote: "The main problem regarding mass transit has nothing to do with either population density or technology. The problem is the economic model."
I think the main problem is actually population density. Areas with greater density can support public transportation. Areas without it can't. There is actually a formula that urban planners use for this. If you try to build a transportation network to nowhere, you're right, it's not going to work. You have to have a place to go before you build a road or a rail there. That's why I support building denser communities first. Cities are going to grow anyways. Why not zone so that they grow in pedestrian friendly ways? In 20 years time or so, you may just have a nice enough cluster of pedestrian districts to warrant laying down some track to connect them. That's the smart way to go about it in my book. In the meantime, put in some bike lanes. Paint is cheap. Building a bike culture can do economic wonders for an area as many US cities are discovering.
You need me to show you a quote you made a few pages back? Um, ok. Your quote: "The main problem regarding mass transit has nothing to do with either population density or technology. The problem is the economic model."
.
So where is the quote where I said
Quote:
"You stated that public transportation isn't viable even when the density is there..."
. In the meantime, put in some bike lanes. Paint is cheap. Building a bike culture can do economic wonders for an area as many US cities are discovering.
After all that, bicycle commuting accounts for 3% of commuting in Seattle. And I bet that is overstated, considering that it rains here from October till May. Meanwhile people are getting killed and maimed on bicycles on a regular basis. http://www.king5.com/story/news/loca...vers/24308603/
And traffic gets steadily worse because you have to eliminate road capacity to make all of those bicycle lanes.
I'm not sure what the point is, but maybe Amtrak should turn their burger concession over to McDonald's of Denmark.
You were the one who could "inform" us about the cost of cheeseburgers in Denmark, remember:
Quote:
Originally Posted by wutitiz
Guess that will buy them a lot of those cheeseburgers that cost $16 to produce and sell for $9.50.
So cheeseburgers in Denmark costing $16 is clearly baloney. Let's talk about it for a second. So here we have it. "Horrendously" high fast food minimum wage of $17.30. Denmark has a 4.7% unemployment rate according to the latest figures. Big Macs cost $5.08. Fast food workers enjoy the standard 5 weeks paid vacation, 1 year paid parental leave and customers dont have to worry about getting served by sick workers because the employees get paid sick leave of course. Why do people like you buy into the scaremongering by companies like McDonalds, Walmart and the rest of the pack? They clearly are able to do business in other countries just fine even when workers are treated like human beings.
Could it be, just maybe, that when employees are treated fairly, companies benefit by getting motivated and productive workers? Has it crossed your mind? Are you willing to consider it a possibility?
I will admit, that's intense. But there HAS to be a happy medium, that's the polar opposite of the U.S, surely there's some middle ground. I don't want the average American to suffer, I don't want small business owners, the working class, the middle class/upper middle class to suffer, they're the majority and the one's who make this country great. I do however think there's some key actions to be made to create this happy median. The obvious actions being:
1. Don't let CEO's of major corporations and banks get away with tax evasion. We lose billions in tax revenue every year from CEOS getting away with tax evasion whether it's through off shore accounts or government manipulation.
2. We need to stop sending jobs overseas ( I know, easier said than done). We need to make it nearly impossible for major corporations to send jobs to china etc. One way to do this would be to tax corporations sending jobs overseas extensively to the point where it would be cheaper for them to pay living wages to American workers than it would be to send jobs overseas.
3. We need to prioritize where out tax dollars go. We have WAAAY to much money going towards the military complex, sure we've dug ourselves a hole where we need to be prepared and have a strong military, but it's overkill in its current form. We could cut our spending nearly in half and still have the highest funded military in the world.
Those are just a few ideas the would be greatly beneficial to 99% of Americans AND would not negatively affect the average citizen like the Denmark model you just provided does.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
