Glassnoser
3mo ago
You're missing the point. The difference in freedom of speech between the US and Canada and the UK is not because of the first amendment. Canada and the UK also have laws protecting freedom of speech in basically the same language, but they've been interpreted differently. The first amendment also used to be interpreted very loosely, resulting in the US having many laws restricting speech in the past that would not be allowed today.
Glassnoser
3mo ago
The UK and Canada actually do have freedom of speech. It's just not interpreted as liberally as it has been by American judges in the latter half of the 20th century.
Glassnoser
3mo ago
That would be a huge problem for people with long driveways.
At some point in the near future, if it doesn't get regulated out of existence, people will just get used to it. No one finds it shocking that I can write a story where I make something up about a politician. This is like that movie The Invention of Lying where the protagonist discovers you can just say things that aren't true and everyone believes it because they don't know about lies yet.
People will quickly get used to the fact that images are not reliable sources of information. I already find myself ignoring AI generated images which have a distinctive style, but which would have grabbed my attention just a couple years ago.
Glassnoser
3mo ago
Each province has eliminated its upper house though, and the Conservatives did try to kill it by not appointing any Senators. They'd probably have gotten rid of it had they been able, but it would require an unlikely constitutional amendment.
Glassnoser
3mo ago
Why would it be impossible?
Glassnoser
3mo ago
Why wouldn't the House of Lords need to pass a bill to abolish the House of Lords when they need to pass every other bill?
Glassnoser
3mo ago
My point is that in places with restrictive housing policies, the population is not much affected by the availability of jobs.
Glassnoser
3mo ago
If the housing supply is heavily constrained, then the number of people living in a place will be mostly determined by the size of that housing supply, not the economic conditions. An increase in the demand for labour would just push rents up to counteract the increase in wages, while a decrease in labour demand would do the opposite. Only if wages fell so low that people didn't want to live there even with rents near zero could the population be determined by the labour demand.
Yeah, 100k euros would be a very high salary here. I don't know many people earning that much, especially not in Nova Scotia. Despite that, our cost of living and our taxes are very high. To earn that much, you'd have to either be a specialist in medicine, one of the more highly paid university professors, or a very successful lawyer. In other parts of the country, the salaries are a bit higher and you can also make a lot in the trades.
One reason it's hard to get ahead is probably that the economy is set up to favour old people. It's a problem here and it's probably worse in Europe. The population in my city is exploding and rents are insane. But there has been an emergency rent cap since Covid and so people with new leases are paying way more than people who have lived in their apartments since before covid. So a huge share of your salary goes towards rent and income taxes.
Something else I noticed in Boston when I was Bumble was that so many young women around 30 years old had fancy titles and seemed to have really good careers. I think old people here don't like to give people opportunities, or maybe they just don't exist. Most young people leave after they graduate.
The areas we went to, including Boston had a lot of tourists, which might have skewed things. There were lots of licence plates from all over New England, plus Quebec, New York, and a surprising number from Texas. And lots of racks and trailers. Maine obviously benefits enormously from being so close to the Northeastern US, otherwise I think its economy would be a lot more like ours. Every trip I've made to New England has been short and I hope to be able to explore more in the future. Everything is very expensive though.
I recently went on a road trip from Halifax to Boston. I thought an outsider's perspective might be interesting. I've been to the US many times, but haven't been in five years and noticed a few things that I hadn't before, and some older impressions were reinforced. In general, the US is really quite different than Canada in many ways, and you notice it the second you cross the border, starting with the accents.
The first thing I noticed crossing the border into Maine (after the border guard's heavy eastern New England accent) was that the US is clearly a richer country. Almost every car looks new and the houses are in good condition. I didn't see any old run down cars or houses that needed to be painted. I realize this might be because of the particular area of the US I visited, since my train ride from Montreal to New York City six years ago left a very different impression. Upstate New York has a lot of shabby looking buildings.
The second and even more striking difference was the amazing condition of the roads. I hardly encountered a pothole and the ones I did were tiny. In Canada, many of the roads are covered in them, some of them being several years old, even in heavily trafficked areas. In New England, almost all the roads look freshly paved.
The driving habits are very different, even than Quebec, where drivers are a bit crazy. New England drivers are universally quite selfish and aggressive. They never ever let you in if you're trying to change lanes. Even if it seems like you have plenty of time and give them warning, they won't so much as let off the accelerator a little bit to help you out. They often don't even stop for pedestrians even if it means running a red light very late. But they're fairly predictable and even though they all go way over the speed limit, they mostly drive around the same speed and don't do anything too stupid. They don't tailgate as badly as Montrealers or Torontonians do. And they don't honk.
By the way, I like the use of toll roads, but it's a bit ridiculous how many times in Maine you have to come to a complete stop from 70 mph just to pay a human being $1 and then get back up to speed again. How much gas does that use? How much is that person paid?
The next striking thing is the obesity. Nova Scotians are fat, but there seem to be a higher number of Americans who are at an absolutely shocking level of obesity that I've rarely seen in Canada. And there are a lot more really fat young people.
In general, there seems to be a wider distribution of human capital in the US. There are a lot more thin, good looking, highly energetic people, but there are also a lot more who seem to be doing really badly. I saw a beggar who was missing an arm! The homeless people seem more like truly desperate people. There is also more variation in other dimensions. I don't know how to describe it other than to say they have unusual physiognomies, and there are more strange characters doing odd things.
The people are oddly very friendly but somehow without ever smiling or adopting a friendly demeanour. It's almost disturbing how little people smile unless you're their customer, in which case they're extremely extraverted. Everyone walks around with a frown, and we had many encounters with New Englanders who expressed some friendly words that seemed sincere, but without smiling or adopting a happy tone of voice.
The other thing I noticed how is how white New England is. Canada's enormous population of recent immigrants from India (which seems to be about half the population in my neighbourhood) is noticeably absent.
In general, it was a good experience. The food is excellent. Americans have a lot of energy, and many girls in Boston are quite attractive, despite the reputation. Maine is beautiful and Boston is an interesting city, but a bit boring given its size. The traffic is a mess and the subway is really slow. There doesn't seem to be much nightlife.
The US really feels like a rich country. I know there has been some divergence between our two countries in the last few years, and coming from the poorest province, it is noticeable. I should note that the people from my home province are known for their friendliness and for being very laid back, even lazy. The US feels like a much more exciting country with more opportunity, but the people seem inordinately unhappy given their material success. The Uber drivers I've talked to and on this and other trips seem unreasonably negative about their situation - complaining about how much they work - given they've escaped from much poorer countries (Sudan and Haiti).
Glassnoser
3mo ago
What's a NAM minority?
Glassnoser
4mo ago
Newton's interest in numerology doesn't make it seem any more plausible to me. It seems far likelier that he has some strong feeling about being the wrong sex and that that is enough on its own to cause him to behave this way than that his knowledge of math and computers has given him special insight (which it sounds like he hasn't shared with you) into the proper definitions of man and woman.
Glassnoser
4mo ago
What protects anyone else from frivolous charges?
Glassnoser
4mo ago
How does prosecuting illegal acts done by the president interfere with his ability to do his job?
Glassnoser
4mo ago
He would only face that choice if he were protected from prosecution while in office, which he should not be.
Glassnoser
4mo ago
I don't understand what this means. Presumably, illegal acts are not part of the president's authority. So what do they have immunity from?
Glassnoser
4mo ago
This will be less obvious as time goes on so it's important to make explicitly clear: the betting markets didn't have Biden's probability of winning the election drop until after the debate.
Glassnoser
4mo ago
I don't know what it is, but I'm finding the subjects people choose to talk about here increasingly boring, to the point where often a whole week goes by with nothing interesting being discussed.
Glassnoser
5mo ago
Who uses that definition of HBD? HBD refers to socially relevant differences. Population genetics is based on possibly inconsequential differences that are nearly universally accepted. HBD doesn't even refer to differences in skin colour which are totally uncontroversial. Even if you want to define HBD this way, how is that relevant? No one is calling him racist because he's interested in population genetics.
I get your point. I'm just criticizing other things you've said.
Glassnoser
5mo ago
What reason is there to think he is unsure that the Holocaust happened?
Population genetics is not HBD. That is not what is getting him called racist.
Glassnoser
5mo ago
What is the alternative we are comparing this to? I already have most of these things, so not much. Less than 10%.
Glassnoser
5mo ago
How many people are actually on board with the Great Awokening though? I don't think it's that popular.
Middle aged white collar workers from rich countries are among the least likely to want to immigrate.
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