Seeing as the social democratic[0] PvdA is currently the largest political party in the Amsterdam city council[1], with the greens a close second, that's all in line with what the people of Amsterdam want.
This is Europe. Socialism isn't a scare word here. If anything, it's a rallying cry.
(FWIW I don't agree that this does make it less desirable to live in cities; it will tend to reduce noise and improve the efficacy of the bus system, both of which make living in cities _more_, not less, desirable anyway.)
I wouldn't have thought most people living in central Amsterdam have parking, anyway? Generally people who actually live in cities are far less likely to have cars than those who live in suburbs (if it's a remotely dense city there simply wouldn't be _space_ for everyone to have a car...)
For what it's worth, I live in Dublin, in the city. Dublin brought in a 30kph limit on most roads around me in 2020; it really didn't change that much. The on-street residents' parking on my road is still generally mostly full. Things are a bit quieter, particularly at night. The bus system works somewhat better, though that one's multifactorial. The number of idiots driving far too fast down my road (it's narrow enough that 50kph was never remotely safe) has fallen off almost entirely, and when it happens now it's always non-Dublin-registered cars.
People who don't have a car aren't real people?
Of course boomers love capitalism when in the 60s a factory worker could easily pay off a huge house, two brand new cars every 3 years, and support a family of 5 on a single income.
But that isn’t capitalism today. Young people are working themselves into the ground just to share a room in a house with 6 other people, barely able to put food on the table.
What do you suppose the current generation will say about capitalism when they get old?
Wealth is flowing from poor people to rich people at an ever increasing rate. It’s no wonder alternative economic systems are gaining in popularity.
Guess what, the same generation born in ussr (mostly urban and either russian or conformist enough to benefit from the system) liked the system too, while it worked. Hell, who would not like state-provided housing, public transport childcare and all the nice things, while they last, even if the system as whole isn't sustainble enough.
It seems that now, based on your comment, it’s in vogue to call it socialism.
At this rate, in a few years it’ll be called democratic socialism and not long after it’ll be called social democracy.
I guess you gotta keep that Overton window moving.
As an aside, what is often overlooked when someone brings up the point you do, is that communist nostalgia[0] is a real thing.
You can get into endless arguments about how they are No True Socialists but it just ends up being like a word game.
That's why the European parties that lean in that direction tend to cast themselves as "social democratic", a different term.
You’re just continuing on the path of self-identification. Would you call North Korea democratic just because that’s what they call themselves?
If not, then why not when you seem to have no qualms calling them socialist because on the basis that they call themselves that in their constitution?
> You can get into endless arguments about how they are No True Socialists but it just ends up being like a word game.
You paint it as some sort of semantics game, meanwhile both socialism and communism are well defined.
Notwithstanding the different flavors, they all have certain elements in common as a fundamental requirement and no amount of trying to fit the Soviet shaped peg into a round hole changes that.
> That's why the European parties that lean in that direction tend to cast themselves as "social democratic", a different term
I understand that you use the word “tend” to hedge your bets, but your comment here implies a certain amount of ubiquity and lack of parties trying to distance themselves.
The reality is that that Europe has a slew of socialist parties that aren’t hiding it either, they’re often called “Socialist Party” in their respective language. Hell there are even some communist parties.
And it’s not like they don’t occupy any seats in the respective parliaments either. Most of these parties have significant presence in parliaments and at other levels.