That’s bad and all, but: They are using Signal?!

I’d probably be all right, Tyria looks nice this time of year. At least as long as the Charr play along.

This reads like the post Brexit articles. What do people expect to happen when they vote for something?

Well, I guess you’re all satisfied, it seems to be guaranteed /s

So if I understand it correctly, there is literally nothing stopping anyone in the US to start such a party and participate. The only thing is that the party might not accumulate enough votes to be of relevance. It might be worth a shot if there is sufficient momentum (which currently there seems to be from my arm chair point of view).

Ignorant Dutchman here:

What’s stopping anyone from starting a new Workers’ party in the US? A multi party system seems more favorable than its current state.

As a Model 3 (2024) driver, I fully agree! Meanwhile I finally nailed down a little over half the instances where it might phantom brake, so I’m more prepared. A common theme is cars moving within their lane while driving next to them. Even if they don’t cross the line into my lane, the car will still brake abruptly.

Why bother having cruise control if you cannot use it comfortably and always have to rest your foot above the accelerator anyways?

This is then only regarding phantom braking. Another dangerous thing is the automatic speed adjustment of the cruise control. I have this set to “off”, but the car seems to completely ignore that setting. It happened multiple times that the car changed set speed, both up and down. Imagine driving 130 on cruise and the car sees a sign that says “90 when asphalt is wet” but it’s dry. The car thinks it’s 90 and slams the brakes.

All I want is just dumb cruise control for cruising and traffic aware cruise control in traffic jams, is that too much to ask?

But is capitalism really the issue here? As far as I can tell, you can put in place any economic agenda, if people just vote against themselves and if laws are actively ignored, the economic policy doesn’t really matter?

It would cost me about 75 euro’s (return) for a 4 hr commute (one way) with public transport to cover a distance of 150km (one way). This is a mixture of transportation modes, including bus and train.

Comparison with the car is quite difficult, but using a car cost calculator website, it says that for my car the average price per kilometer would be ~0,20 euro. So that would mean that the round trip would cost me roughly 60 euro’s by car. As for time, a one way commute to the office is about 1,5h to 2h by car, depending on traffic. So, twice as fast and 1/4th cheaper.

My company covers car expenses in the company leasing contract. All I have to pay is taxes to use the car privately, which in The Netherlands is quite high (compared to for example Belgium). So I pay 350 euro (net) a month to use the car privately. The mobility budget for the leasing car represents about 1000 euro gross a month. But of course if I were to take public transport, my company would reimburse that, but I would have to give up the car.

To be fair, the situation here in The Netherlands is not much different than you describe, outside the larger cities that is. Most people commuting to these cities from the smaller towns and villages are still heavily car dependent. Even within my own town, public transport is just a sham. If I were to take the bus to get groceries, I would have to wait 2 hours for the next bus that takes me back home. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

I drive, public transport in The Netherlands is horrible outside of the major cities. Even in the major cities it’s “meh” to be honest. The PR department of The Netherlands does a great job at portraying our country as some sort of engineering marvel / paradise. The truth is that mobility in The Netherlands is expensive and in case of public transport, it lacks proper connection to regions outside of the cities. The only reason why we “love” riding our bicycle around, is that it’s the only affordable mobility option.

Many people that cover longer distances, like myself, have a company leasing car. So it doesn’t hit my wallet as much.

I’m located in The Netherlands, the housing market here is fucked. An alternative solution would be to find something to rent closer to work, but I would pay 1,5 times as much in rent, for a small apartment in a neighborhood where I don’t want to live. Yes, I’m spending more time on my commute, but I also have more disposable income each month that I can save and invest. If all goes to plan, I can retire earlier and live mortgage free within 20 years. In essence, I’m trading a bit of time now, to have more spare time and a better financial position in the near future. I’m taking it.

Or have office jobs and commute a bit longer.

People say I’m crazy for commuting 1,5 hours (one way). But I get to go home to my own property. Especially now with hybrid working still being a thing, I only go to the office once or twice a week.

Let’s be honest, it is efficient! /s

I agree with your first two sentences, but not with your last one. You have to take into consideration that many people are in different situations. If you have trouble making ends meet, if you need your job to feed your family, you might not be inclined to risk your job to protest. What I’m trying to say is, not all people that don’t protest are Nazis. Stating they are creates another layer of polarization that isn’t bringing us anywhere near a solution. And yes: Us. even though I’m not a US citizen, it unfortunately affects the world.

In some way, it also symbolizes what he is doing to the country. His plane is just a bit bigger.