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Comment by jiofj | Hacker News Reader

What's very bad, that people have the freedom to use personal transportation? Would you rather see us on a bus or something?

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> What's very bad, that people have the freedom to use personal transportation?

"Sometimes the things you do impact other people" is something we learn in very early childhood.

> Would you rather see us on a bus or something?

Yes?

“Just give up individual transportation and hop on the cattle truck!” isn’t exactly what I imagine when I think of what a decent future looks like.

It’s very “You’ll own nothing, and you’ll like it” energy.

Visit somewhere with an effective public transportation system like the Netherlands or Switzerland to expand your imagination a little bit.

"You'll own nothing, and you won't like it" is a whole bunch of folks' future if we continue to pretend our decisions don't have externalities.

I have a feeling you like to talk about the tragedy of the commons when it's something you don't have a personal stake in.

Elect a government that can provide better buses than cattle trucks. Like in developed countries.

It's very "You'll think about the consequences of your actions if everyone else also does the same actions, and you'll like it" Kantian energy, you mean.

Or maybe, "You'll stop engaging in activities that objectively harm those around you, and you'll like it".

Just some alternate phrases for you to explore placing between quotes.

"A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transportation."

Construction + buildings generate about 2x more CO2 per year than cars.

If we want to maintain our exponential increase of CO2 emissions in the face of EV adoption, we need to get people to tear out and replace existing construction.

One way to do that is to rapidly build up low-cost, low-efficiency housing near bus and train lines.

What's very bad is that we have an ongoing tragedy of the commons in the form of global climate change caused by human activity. What's even worse is that we know this, yet are not changing our society to alleviate the effects of our unsustainable carbon usage.

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