Nice write up and great photos. But I have to nitpick- the claim that there are no sandy beaches is false- Tjørnuvik Beach is a cool black sand beach. You can even take surf lessons there.
The Enlightenment directly led to violent revolutions in the US and France. Political violence has never not been a part of political society in some capacity. What is effective is not always what is right, and violence is often effective (not in this case, in my opinion).
> and violence is often effective (not in this case, in my opinion).
Depending on your interpretation of "effective" I'm not sure I entirely agree. Political campaigners on both side of the political spectrum have a lot of respect for Charlie Kirk and his ability to raise funds and make a difference in his political activism. From what I've heard, the stuff he did on camera was actually the weaker part of his skill set, its his off-camera work that the GOP will sorely miss.
My wife and I have no interest in ever having children, yet we are happy to pay property taxes that go to local public schools. Why? Because an educated society is better able to make educated decisions. We are being "penalized" for making the choice to not have kids in order to "subsidize" those who don't.
Correct. It all comes down to whether you believe parents leaving home to work on their careers instead of staying home to raise their kids is an unambiguous good that needs to be subsidized the same way education is.
Assuming by education you actually mean schooling, this is the very same thing. The question is really only about at which age subsidized schooling should first start. This moves that age of first subsidized engagement to approximately birth, as opposed to waiting until age ~3-5 (varies by jurisdiction).
Historically it was considered a beneficial necessity to gather the children to write down knowledge so that it could be brought back home for the whole family to learn from, but in the age of the internet perhaps separating children and parents is never good at any (young-ish) age?
I think the biggest difference isn't age, it's that childcare also happens during the summer, not just during the school year. (And of course the lack of any particular educational curriculum.)
Is that a meaningful difference, though? Schools were originally open all year round, but the hot summer classroom eventually was deemed an unsuitable place to occupy, thus schools decided to compromise by closing during the hottest months.
Since the advent of air-conditioning, there really isn't any good reason to close schools during the summer. But, like the internet bit before, we've just never bothered to stop and actually think about what we're doing. We carry on with the status quo simply because that's what we did in the past. Not because it makes sense, just because that's what we do.
But in establishing subsidized daycare now, we don't have to think about the time before air-conditioning was invented. We only have to worry about the constraints we have today. Hot summers are not a practical problem as of right now.
I'm not the user you're asking but the same logic holds true for UBI, yes. The societies with the most effective social welfare programs do it via a robust and de-stigmatized social safety net. I think most of the common criticisms of UBI (it will make people lazy, its not fair, it will cause inflation etc) are silly, and I also generally support universal programs over means testing or exemptions. Still, I will be a skeptic until I see a somewhat large scale successful rollout of a UBI program beyond just studies and pilots.
Many of the Persian Gulf GCC nations essentially had a form of generous UBI since the early 80s. It has certainly made people far less enterprising and productive. Inflation hasnt happened since they import the vast majority of their requirements. It has led to increased religiosity etc since people are freed up to engage in religious activities all day long and don't necessarily have to develop skills like social competency or engage with others.
Many north African and middle eastern states tried to switch to democracy and that did not go as planned either, would that mean that democracy does not work?
Any policy (UBI or others) must take into account the state and potential of the country. Based on the Gulf state UBI example (if correct, I did not check) it would mean that with their initial conditions UBI will not result in developing skills (although, thinking of it, maybe their purpose of giving UBI was close to the one observed, their ruler don't strike me as very progressive).
In a world where we produced so much that we have caused climate change and mass extinction, I can't imagine people being less enterprising and productive being a truly bad thing.
A weird side-effect of this is UAE/Dubai, and to a lesser extent some of the other gulf states, have become far more open to relative free trade and immigration as a result now that the citizen's cake is assured and immigrants are not much a threat. Now Dubai is a burgeoning hub of relative "free trade" and international commerce, with pretty lax visa rules for people from surrounding more trade hostile countries to run a business in a more business friendly environment, in a region that prior was fairly impenetrable.
I agree with the sentiment but I have seen multiple job applications that have a mandatory 'apply with LinkedIn' button. Of course I could always choose not to apply, but I don't want to do that.
Same thing when some websites require you to sign in with Google- there is no Google user score yet but they can ban you from their platform.
There's something similar in Philly- I went to Temple University and many drunk kids would either fall asleep on the Broad Street Line or mistakenly take the last express train, which skips over both of the Temple stops. As a result, you have to get off somewhere in North Philly (the worst part of the city) and wait for someone to pick you up.
I grew up in New Hampshire and the White Mountains are such a good playground for stuff like this. Big network of trails, all kinds of terrain. Four very different seasons, lots of weather.
Basically anything you want to find in mountains, you can find in the Whites. Ice climbing, mountaineering, multi-pitch trad climbing, bushwhacking, easy trails, empty trails, whatever. I was very lucky to be able to hike there.
Yes- I live in a pretty affluent Los Angeles suburb and we recently just hit "functional zero" street homelessness.
"To achieve Functional Zero, the number of individuals placed in interim or permanent housing must be greater than the number of individuals who become homeless over a six-month period, and the homeless population, as a whole, must have a median duration on the streets of less than 90 days."
The data is gathered by the city as well as local nonprofits.
