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Comment by Kalium | Hacker News Reader

OK. Let's say a magic wand is waved, and all of us Americans have bikeable and walkable cities with excellent public transportation. Let's say this happens literally overnight.

How do you expect this would change Amazon's logistics and how favorable they are for consumers? For my part, at the very least, I'm still likely to get a lot of things delivered. Local stores are very rarely cheaper for anything non-immediate and delivery takes much less of my time than going to a store and back.

At a guess, Amazon's still better than this alternative for many scenarios. Maybe not ten times better, but still better.

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Last-mile logistics in bikeable and walkable cities would be accomplished with zero-emission vehicles like electric cargo bicycles. They're already being used in cities that support them.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andriacheng/2019/12/04/amid-rec...

Perhaps, we should wave this magic wand to make you order less stuff? No tech can save us unless we start to consume less. Also, we should care less about optimising our time which we are likely to waste anyway on netflix and co.

I'm a very strange person in many ways. I personally prefer to be able to make my own choices about how I waste away my free time - Netflix, books, biking, walks, prayer, meditation, yoga, etc. Trading that in for spending more time to get my groceries (or toiletries, or dry goods, or similar) does not sound like an attractive choice to me.

I understand that this is an unusual personality trait. Still, I'm reluctant to give it up.

I don't think this is about "attractive choices". Either our lifestyles (and those who will live after us) are sustainable or not. If they are not, we should consider changing our behaviour.

> Please stop buying stuff. It's bad for the environment. But also keep working - we need you paying your taxes!

If I'm morally not allowed to buy stuff because its bad for the environment, then what incentive do I have to earn more than 40k/year? Do I exist just to pay taxes to the government to fund "more moral" causes than my own consumption?

Is this a genuine question? There is no obligation to make more than 40k. Instead of making more money you could just work less and do what you like/love (as long as it's not bad for environment).

A universal carbon emissions tax would be an effective magic wand to make people order less stuff.

I assume you mean tax paid with money? That's not a solution. Most, if not all the ways that people make money require emitting more carbon and producing more waste. Such tax would lead to fatal feedback loop.

I'd love to see something like a personal carbon quota, same for every person on a planet.

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