Capitalism has no more solutions because it is only concerned with one thing: maximum profits for owners and investors. The capitalist theorists swear up and down that exclusively focusing on profit maximization will inevitably lead to better lives for everyone, albeit indirectly or incidentally, but that is clearly not true. Maybe it was true enough at various points in the past, but it is absolutely not true anymore. Under capitalism today, the exclusive focus on profit maximization is REDUCING access to a better life for many people, not increasing it.

More dense urban areas certainly should be more affordable than suburban or rural areas, but they’re often not. Or at least not as much as they could be.

One reason is I think many suburban and rural areas are being subsidized by urban areas, by using urban tax revenue to pay for suburban infrastructure.

But I think the biggest reason is that urban areas are often in much higher demand, because that’s where most of the jobs and housing are located, but the supply of housing is simply insufficient to meet the demand, thus driving up housing prices. And other prices, too. There’s a supply demand imbalance for a lot of things in many higher density urban areas. And part of that is by design. The “suppliers” of homes, that is landlords, don’t want to oversupply the market with housing, relative to demand, because that will push down rents, and they want rents to be as high as possible, because rents are their source of revenue.

Until urban areas find ways to significantly increase the supply of housing relative to the demand, housing prices in those urban areas will remain higher than they could, or should be. Non-car transportation infrastructure also needs to be significantly improved in many urban areas, but that takes money. Money that many urban residents either don’t want to pay, or can’t pay because so much of their income is going to housing, and other costs of living. Edit: Plus, these infrastructure projects are often poorly managed by politicians, causing cost over runs and long delays.

Finally, there’s a social/cultural element to this that almost no one talks about because it’s seen as problematic or taboo. People don’t necessarily want to be surrounded on all sides by people they don’t consider to be a part of their cultural or ethnic group. I’m sorry, I know, reading that makes a lot of people’s butt holes clinch, but it’s true. I think people would be much more willing to live in more densely populated urban areas if the people in these areas were more like them (culturally, ethnically). You can choose not to believe that because it makes you uncomfortable, but, uncomfortable though it may be, I think it is nonetheless true.

Edit: I want to add that I think there is also a class element to this, in addition to the cultural/ethnic element. Many people move out to the suburbs because they don’t want to be around people they see as being of a “lower class” than them. Edit, again: also, where there are higher rates of poverty in urban areas, there are often higher crime rates. Many urban areas are often very unequal, with wealthier areas that are better maintained with better schools, very near much poorer areas that are more poorly maintained with worse schools.

Final edit: so, for better urban areas we need: to stop using urban tax revenue to subsidize suburban infrastructure. We need to significantly increase the supply of housing relative to demand, even perhaps oversupplying housing to drive housing costs down as much as possible. We need better non-car infrastructure and better leadership to better manage the building and maintenance of that infrastructure. We need to reduce poverty and inequality in urban areas as much as possible. If we do those things across all urban areas, I think the ethnic and cultural issues will work themselves out.

Why would you want a majority of people using the same distribution?

I don’t, necessarily. I just think it’s the only way we will ever see widespread adoption of Linux on desktops. But, maybe I’m wrong. Honestly, I hope I am. I hope through changes in the culture and more education, people will make the switch. But, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t skeptical.

they will complain that MSO, Photoshop, Premiere doesn’t work

That’s true. They will. But maybe if enough users switch to SteamOS, Adobe, and other software developers might port their software to it. That’s really the only hope for widespread Linux desktop adoption.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe more people will be willing to endure a learning curve for the freedom and openness of Linux, but I think that path to widespread Linux adoption would take a long time, if it happens at all.

Yeah, one more with the name recognition, like you mentioned. People don’t know what Silverblue is, they don’t know what an immutable distribution is, and, frankly, I don’t think they’re interested in learning. But they know Steam. Sad, perhaps, but true.

there are already a lot of immutable Linux distros

Exactly. There are a lot, and that’s confusing for most people. The fact that people have so many choices makes them less likely to switch. Most people want ease, simplicity and convenience.

Until there is one, single distribution that the vast majority of people can install on their existing hardware, that just works, easily and conveniently, Linux will remain a relatively niche desktop OS. I think when Valve finally releases the desktop version is SteamOS, that might do the trick.

Linux will really take off when Valve finally releases the desktop version of SteamOS.

The national guard is a reservist group for the Federal military. There’s way too much Federal involvement. No, new, independent state militias would need to be formed.

The Republican party is a terrorist organization. They have to be stopped. We have to wrestle power away from them by any means necessary. If we do not succeed, if the Republicans are able to seize total, permanent control of the Federal government, secession will be our only other option.

Edit: it may be necessary for states to establish their own militaries, completely separate from the Federal government. It might be time for the 2nd amendment’s true purpose to be realized.

You know things are changing when the Wall Street Journal starts sounding Marxist.

I’m sure it’s true for some women. But I wouldn’t be surprised if most working women were either married or in a committed relationship. Plus, a lot of households have two incomes out of necessity. Both partners need to work full time just to make ends meet.

I was in SF last year for a 9ers game (stayed in San Mateo, did a bunch of touristy stuff in SF and of course the actual game was in Santa Clara). Some homeless people digging through the trash in Portsmouth Square Park. I think someone tried to break into our Airbnb, too. But, I never really felt unsafe. It’s not really any worse than most any other big city in the US. Kinda run down, seems like it could use some TLC, but that’s true of most American cities. And of course everything is stupid expensive.

The worst part was the traffic, imo. We used Caltrain and I think Bart? Idk, it was confusing. And expensive. And slow. But we also did a fair amount of driving, and driving around SF is like my own personal hell. To be fair, though, I generally hate driving in any major US city. But I think SF is worse than most.

SF isn’t terrible, but it ain’t great, either.

I don’t claim to be the ultimate authority on what is or is not considered socialism.

They’re basically cult members. I feel bad for them.

I agree, socialism is a great idea.

If the Democrats want to have any future at all, they need to become a majoritarian party, not a party of elites or special interests. And, just to be clear, they need to be a party of the majority of PEOPLE, not a party of the people who have a majority of the MONEY. People, not dollars.

I don’t know who you are and I don’t care. Your opinion of me means absolutely nothing to me. Think whatever the hell you want about me, I don’t care.

Society suffers because some South African rich kid can’t handle the fact that he’s a humongous dork. It’s absolutely wild.

You don’t know a god damn thing about me or what I’m willing to do to defy what I consider to be immoral and unjust actions by my government. And if you think you can determine by the “tone” of a few of my sentences, ANY fucking thing about who I am, my strength or constitution as a person, then you’re an impudent, presumptuous little prick.