Posts: 11,190
Threads: 759
Joined: Sep 2012
tens of thousands of bicycles are stolen every year...
If a stolen bicycle disqualifies Sweden as a livable country, then I suppose that includes Puna as well (although I still keep my bike on the carport unlocked)? Someone could always try life in mainland China, Russia, or North Korea. I hear the theft rates are extremely low, and if you’re lucky you might even be entitled to a PDQ trial and sentencing. (Don’t forget in some of those countries it’s BYO execution bullet)
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
Posts: 14,138
Threads: 424
Joined: Aug 2012
If our county and state fostered small business with better policies
But they do! Consider all the studies, consultants, and licensed trades necessary ... oh, did you mean "your" business?
Posts: 7,786
Threads: 691
Joined: Jun 2011
"homelessness makes a case for universal minimum wage"
Seattle is spending $100,000.00 (San Francisco spends a similar amount) per homeless person and it gets worse every year:
"At the same time, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal, the Seattle metro area spends more than $1 billion fighting homelessness every year. That’s nearly $100,000 for every homeless man, woman, and child in King County, yet the crisis seems only to have deepened, with more addiction, more crime, and more tent encampments in residential neighborhoods. By any measure, the city’s efforts are not working."
https://www.city-journal.org/seattle-homelessness
It would be cheaper to give each homeless person $15/hour for doing nothing than to continue what they are doing, but as somebody else said, they would probably make poor purchasing decisions.
Posts: 1,120
Threads: 57
Joined: Mar 2013
"If a stolen bicycle disqualifies Sweden as a livable country..."
Tolerance for thievery and crime is at the heart of what makes liberals and conservatives different.
Had a story some time back in the Scandinavian media about an older guy who confessed to stealing 15,000 bikes in his lifetime. Big magazine article about how he is now reformed. (sorry, don't have link.) And all the Scandinavians said: "Isn't that great, reformed." Almost patting him on the back.
I won't detail what a conservative prescription for this individual would be (if the thefts were verified by court proceedings). It's along the lines of lifetime requirement of living in a halfway house under restraining orders and community service obligations. In part because the individual has a massive restitution obligation.
Posts: 7,786
Threads: 691
Joined: Jun 2011
Back in the late 80's or early 90's Portland tried copying the Dutch "free bicycle" model and painted a bunch of bikes yellow or whatever and it was understood that anybody could use them. But they all disappeared. They didn't show up in other towns or repainted and sold or used. Just gone. There were reports of people throwing them off bridges into the river but by the time I moved away from there the mystery was never fully solved as far as I know.
Posts: 11,190
Threads: 759
Joined: Sep 2012
liberals... Scandinavians said: "Isn't that great, reformed." Almost patting him on the back.
I won't detail what a conservative prescription for this individual would be
MarkD -
Do you have a link to the website that categorizes liberal and conservative opinions on various situations? For instance, I’m hoping it will dig into the details of what a resident of Stockholm thinks when he discovers his bike was stolen.
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
Posts: 5,640
Threads: 101
Joined: Dec 2008
"Back in the late 80's or early 90's Portland tried copying the Dutch "free bicycle" model "
They didn't do their research very well because the Dutch soon discovered that was a mistake in the 1960s. As anyone could've predicted.
Posts: 3,188
Threads: 216
Joined: Sep 2007
long before the 90's we Netherlanders figured out if we treated the underlying mental disorders and substance abuse issues we could all but eliminate the homeless issue....
meanwhile in the prior decade in the U.S. R.Reagan closed the mental hospitals and created much of the homeless problem we have today.
Hawaii would do well (more cost effective) to focus on the underlying problem rather than playing for social impacts created by the underlying issues imho
Posts: 1,120
Threads: 57
Joined: Mar 2013
HOTPE: "Do you have a link to the website that categorizes liberal and conservative opinions on various situations? For instance, I’m hoping it will dig into the details of what a resident of Stockholm thinks when he discovers his bike was stolen."
- - - -
Sorry I don't have either. But hopefully we do not have much problem agreeing that varying opinions on law and order are fundamental to the split. And underlying this are questions that also have a Left-Right split:
1. Do people have a moral obligation to work or, at minimum, not to be drain or problem for society?
2. Is American society basically just/fair, does everyone have a fair shot for a decent life? (This does not mean an equal shot.)
History provides many example of unjust societies: feudal Europe, southern U.S. under slavery and Jim Crow, life under Stalin or Mao.
Posts: 7,786
Threads: 691
Joined: Jun 2011
"R.Reagan closed the mental hospitals and created much of the homeless problem we have today."
Please explain. As governor of California he signed the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act which limited a family's ability to commit somebody to a mental institution without due process. Other states later implemented similar laws.
As president he shifted mental health care expenses to the states through block grants. How the states spent these funds was not a 'Reagan' decision.
The first president to initiate mental health reform on the federal level was JFK after the discovery and implementation of the drug thorazine. "Mental health" facilities, AKA "Insane Asylums" were just prisons for crazy people until drugs were developed that could treat many of them. Are you suggesting that all crazy homeless people should be imprisoned? Because that's what we used to do before Reagan implemented a law making that illegal.
