@zacharywefel So quaint, though, by modern standards, right?
The misconduct was basically "being a slightly weird and awkward guy" which maybe set the stage for this "nothing matters" backlash.
@xwanyex This seems weirdly broken, like in functioning capitalism you should be able to do your job that you specialize at well, get paid, and then efficiently pay a different specialist to fix your house.
Not everyone is a sicko who wants to spend all of their weekends at Home Depot.
@AndrewM36013517@Noahpinion Well fine but it undercuts "revealed preference". Other places in the world that didn't decide to spend infinity trillion dollars taking the same number of people in every city and spreading them over 10x the area apparently had a different "revealed preference".
@AliceFromQueens@DavidAstinWalsh If they kept us in order maybe they weren't disposable.
Never thought of myself as an "order" guy but post Covid society is definitely worse so
@ARKloster@SohrabAhmari I feel like when you're pegging media that famously resonates with people as examples of evil neoliberal ideology maybe you're the weirdo.
@AndrewM36013517@Noahpinion It's fair to say our amount of infrastructure per person is dramatically higher than almost every other developed country. We have really large infrastructure maintenance liabilities. How much is enough?
@AndrewM36013517@Noahpinion My model is there's a thumb on the scales here. The federal government isn't paying for an interchange and four stoplights for your local hardware store.
@AndrewM36013517@Noahpinion Yeah I'm aware that whenever I express this preference I'll get ten people talking about how great Walmart is and yet the preference remains. When I think of places that people cite as great places to be they're not a big box store on the frontage road of county 79.
@VanyaWright@jasonc_nc Most new things didn't make sense at the time but we let people do things as a default because it's better in the long run.
I'm certain the masses would have vetoed electricity given the chance.
@jasonc_nc@mindyisser I feel like we can be broadly more forgiving of people's increasingly more public foibles while realizing the sum total of the evidence is that this guy is a douchbag.
@robynngarfield@BurtMaclin_FBI Everyone thinks this because they're not actually tracking the cost of every dollar and hour they spend on their house (and the amortized cost of the roof they'll need in 20 years).
@DPearsonPHL@tracewoodgrains@mattyglesias Right, these places exist! The taxes might not quite be literally zero but they're low enough to make the point you get what you pay for.
@tracewoodgrains@mattyglesias Property taxes are maybe the best tax because they're very direct: you're basically being charged for all of the costs it takes to provide access and utilities to, and protect the property. More than any other tax, a society user fee.
@xwanyex My grandfather bequeathed my father an acre of swamp in the middle of nowhere, without road access or sewer.
The taxes are like $6 a year.
The point is this fantasy only makes sense if the property is entirely unserviced, which is impossible in a society.