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Kevin Alexander's avatar

So, I know you didn't write this just for me, but let me share my morning with you:

I work for an airline and am now trying to figure out how the WH's ham-fisted approach to cutting air traffic will work and whether it will affect me, both as an employee and as a member of the traveling public. If this comes to pass, the second-order effects will be huge. We're not just talking about getting home for T-day; there are also massive supply chain issues.

I spent a while (too long, actually) chattering about this on an app... that I pay for (Patreon). It's an Avgeek forum, and this is what passes for "shared experience" today. I took a break to eat, and the avocado I was going to have with my breakfast was bad. lol.

And just for funsies, it's Open Enrollment season, so sometime today I need to figure out what my family's least-worst healthcare option is.

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Rocco Pendola's avatar

I just read about the airline situation after reading your comment. Unreal.

Mamdani is so impressive. Which makes me hate being pessimistic. He embodies everything "the left" should have been doing and saying these last few decades as the Republicans and MAGA stole and polluted the narrative. Now we're in a place were they want and even sew chaos. They want there to be problems in cities so they can blame them on "the radical left." Same with what you're dealing with - whether it's air traffic or health insurance. It's a tragedy.

So Mamdani is great, but he will get swallowed up in this polarization I just can't possibly see rectifying itself. And it comes down to culture.

That said - your plan you outlined in your comment the other day. That's good shit. And it's what life is all about.

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Olaf Ransome's avatar

Just before I read this, I was listening to a podcast from Monocle, the media brand. In Sunday's show they talked about how young people are going out way less than prior generations and then spending more "screen time".

The main driver was seen to be the inordinately high cost ot eating / going out. The hosts were talking about prices in London, more or less in terms of it just being punitively expensive and rents being sky high too.

This week's episode is well worth a listen: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ofGY842eh6Olt5KNC9iXW?si=700f603e28c04fe3

Now I would struggle with strategy. But, as I write, I think about neighbourhoods and some combo of cutting business rates (city taxes), forcing landlords to rent out stores with compulsory purchases if needed. I don't think the public sector needs to be an operator of any business or of housing, beyond emergency needs like battered women, endangered families, but what it can do is create neighbourhoods and reduce the cost of being there.

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