neanderthal

We wouldn't take China and China wouldn't take us because of highly interdependent economies and nukes. It would be suicide for both of us.

Alan Turing, a mathematician and gay man, is right up there with Oppenheimer, Churchill, Macarthur, and Stalin in level of importance towards the allied victory in WW2.

I'm a veteran. A lot of really good troops in technical fields tended to not serve all that long due to better quality of life outside of the military. An ace technical troop is worth their weight in gold.

Various types of mechanics and technicians, logisticians, network admins, equipment operators, pilots, various engineers, and other technical troops are the real power of the US military. Most of those are more technical than physical.

It isn't brawn that keeps around 100 USN ships deployed around the world at any given time. It isn't brawn that gives the USAF a 48 hour turn around time for operating anywhere in the world. It isn't brawn that keeps large ground forces supplied at bases all around the world. It is education, brains, and training.

I strongly agree that they need easy access to psychiatric and psychological assistance.

That is the dark side to mandatory reporting laws. Perhaps if some people would be able to get help without fear, it would prevent them from harming children. If it was up to me, everyone would see a psychologist a few times a year in the same manner you see your dentist or PCP. I wonder how much crap could be prevented and dealt with from regular mental health checkups.

It seems like a worthwhile research topic to find out if lolicon or AI generated kiddie porn would be more harmful or helpful.

Since such research doesn't exist, outright banning it without knowing more is reactionary and prevents learning more about it.

If it keeps pedophiles satiated without harming actual children, why ban it?

You are correct about suburbia. There are also typically no sidewalks and minimal shoulders, so even if you live within walking or biking distance of places, it is dangerous to not drive there.

In the US, some of this stems from racism. I don't feel like getting into the history of it, but if you are interested, red lining, restrictive covenants, and using the cost of car dependency as a racial filter are good starters. Basically, the US suburb situation came about partially due to racism, and partially due to hostile takeover of transportation infrastructure and PR campaigns by corporations.

I'd hope not. 1000 dollars wouldn't cover the hospital visit! 100k and I would consider it.

After doing WFH for several years, I'll only take a job on site as a last resort or for like double my pay. Then I would cut my time until FIRE roughly in half. I don't hate doing work. I hate having a huge chunk of my time taken up by having to work 40 hours.

If work weeks were cut to 24 or even 32 hours, I might even reconsider the FIRE path.

As crappy as it is, work is still getting done. US military SOP is if the ranking person is unavailable for the next in line to take command.

It just sucks that it is becoming a PITA to them and probably pushing out quality troops that can easily obtain other employment.

Broken window economics. The US spends loads of money on things like health insurance, for profit hospitals, fuel for canyoneros, and other things that don't build wealth, but show up in GDP numbers.

Sure, that is fine for you if you are not so poor that you can afford the more ethical option.

ethical costing more than unethical is simply not always true. A bicycle is cheaper than a small car. A small car is cheaper than a canyonero. I'm in the US, I know bicycles aren't feasible in most parts due to car dependent design, but nobody is forced to commute to an office in the suburbs in a monster truck.

Poultry is cheaper than beef. Rice+beans+lentils is cheaper than meat.

A reasonable house is cheaper than a mcmansion.

First, I don't completely disagree with some of your points about problems in the US. I think you are infantilizing people to an extent by ignoring the agency they do have and what they can control.

I never made any of the claims you are arguing against. Please check usernames.

What's wrong is assuming people even have the means to travel in the first place.

I never made that assumption.

All I did was ask what is the problem with not traveling when taking time off work. The person I responded to sounded like not traveling was somehow problematic. I just wanted clarification.

As two other exercises, how would somebody in a city with no public transport be able to drive less?

I couldn't agree more. Car dependency is the cause of sooo many of our problems in the US.

Waste isn't high because of individual lifestyle

Yes and no. E.g. A large segment of the US have CHOSEN to drive around in monster trucks and canyoneros instead of more reasonable vehicles. A large portion vote for politicians (GOP) who refuse to even acknowledge it is a problem.

I think the paycheck to paycheck claims are somewhat exaggerated. There are a lot of people with good incomes that this applies to because of bad choices like the aforementioned vehicle choices, buying larger houses than they need, hiring out every simple job that 99% of people could easily do with a 2 minute video (like replacing the flap in a running toilet), annual extravagant vacations, etc. I think the paycheck to paycheck claims need to be calculated by household size, local cost of living, and income. These people would both reduce their contribution to GHG emissions AND be in a financially better position if they made better choices.

As far as food choices, non beef options are available pretty much everywhere food is available. Beef is generally more expensive than other meats. Beef is the biggest contributor to GHG emissions. A person of limited means could easily choose the cheaper AND environmentally better options.

basically no choice on what they consume

Not entirely true. I can choose to buy a monster truck to commute to work or a small car. Ideally that choice would include transit, bike, etc. I can choose beef, pork, chicken, or lentils for my protein. Even at corner stores, fast food, etc, it is pretty easy to avoid beef. Sure, there are problems like car dependency and the ideal choice would include transit, bike, etc. To claim no choice isn't really true. The kicker is, the greener option is often the cheaper option.

What's wrong with taking time off and not going anywhere?