What has also dramatically increased in the past 50 years is our productivity.

Strangely, there has been a negative correlation between increased worker productivity and the amount of work required to support a family.

I wonder where did all that surplus value go? Is it a coincidence that inequality has raised in the last decades?

> what you're referencing in the US was the middle class, not those living in poverty

There is no middle class, only proletariat and bourgeoisie. Either you own means of production or you don't.

The proletariat could afford a decent lifestyle without living paycheck to paycheck until a few years ago, but not anymore.

Roads are all fine, I just want them to be gravel or dirt ;). While we're dreaming that is.

I grew up in rural California and dirt roads were quite common not far out of town, it's a different way of driving and one that'll make you wonder why you aren't using a mountain bike, if you aren't hauling a bunch of kids or gear.

This all said I am beyond biased, I escaped the bay area to London at least partially because I don't want driving to be a part of my daily life. But I understand opinions vary and people back home love their cars and TV ;)

More anecdata: When Bill Bryson moved back to the US for a time, he specifically chose a walkable place to live -- Hanover, NH. He reported in his book, I'm A Stranger Here Myself, that he had been stopped by concerned neighbors on multiple occasions, offering him a ride. They were perplexed as to why he'd choose to walk.

Another: I heard a story on a podcast a few years ago about a woman who, in pouring rain, chose to drive to a PTA meeting at her child's school rather than walk. Now, this would make sense in most circumstances, but this woman's front door was quite close to the school entrance -- closer, in fact, than the school's parking lot was. By driving, she actually increased how far she walked.

There's a lot of ingrained driving culture in the US, unfortunately, and I'm sure that WFH and transit avoidance in a post-COVID world have made it that much worse.

I'm having trouble parsing this line of thought. Are you suggesting that merely talking about tyranny is inducing tyrannical behavior; that not talking about the elephant in the room could make the elephant disappear?

Taking it a step further: should police not be educated about corruption laws, or should corruption laws simply not exist?