A rant on bus stops

As someone who currently spends time on two continents it&#x27;s always jarring to return to the USA. The first thing that hits you is the wealth. The second is the wealth disparity. The third is the dysfunction.<p>It&#x27;s truly a remarkable place but often feels like a rocket ship pulling itself apart at the seams—a lot of exceptional velocity and a ton of social problems that just no one can seem to get a grip on.

In America you’re expected to be your own king. Any problem with public spaces, public transit, etc. is deemed a personal failing because you aren’t able to afford your own limousine to shuttle you from your castle to your friend’s.

Something I’ve always noticed across the US political landscape: people really don’t like spending money to directly help people (mental health care, institutions, public housing, addiction recovery programs) but are fine with wasting money in weird ways like having this non profit travel the world to learn how to put up a sun shade.<p>It’s like the thing Americans dislike isn’t spending the money but the idea of helping the wrong sorts of people.<p>I’m sure that non profit was full of mostly white college graduates. Tossing money their way is fine even if it doesn’t accomplish much or anything. Let the addicts die on the street.

I think we&#x27;ve become increasingly anti-human. Everything must be monetized and transactional including basic interactions. We argue that everything has a cost instead of growing the pie.<p>To be human is to be connected in our shared humanity. Instead we build walls or worse, fail by default design to build &#x27;connections&#x27; between us and prefer to insulate and isolate ourselves in socio-economic psychological safety.

You wrote the blog post I&#x27;ve been thinking about writing for years. It&#x27;s clear and simple and to the point. What you describe occurs constantly in every American city.<p>Thank you.

I’m sure some aspect of this is the North American culture of high credentialism. Everything must be done by “properly trained” “experts” and whatnot. During the pandemic people on Han were talking about how N95 masks need you to be trained by professionals in a fit test. It’s a 15 min video on the 3M site…<p>Here’s the facts: I can do almost any job well without needing extensive training. But credentialism gets in the way of my helping myself and others.

My write-up on the recent LA bus stop fiasco

As Argentinian, and particularly, from Buenos Aires, one thing that I hate from US is the lack of public transportation network, bus stops and people that don&#x27;t know the concept of line-up.

It&#x27;s infuriating to learn that LA spends taxpayer money to send bus stop designers on overseas junkets.

great write up, love the observational acuity - credit to author for both the travelling and the awareness to notice the differences. The Taipei bus stop reminds me a great deal of the stuff you see in rural Hong Kong - local residents basically hauling out an old couch for people to use if gov didn&#x27;t provide the seating.

&gt; a high-regulation&#x2F;low-trust society like the US<p>It used to be, we were the other way around.

Oh yes, the old,<p>&quot;Everyone gotta have ID because what if there is voter fraud&quot;...even if it eliminates the right to vote for some people.<p>&quot;Everyone gotta get preauthorization from insurance because what if there is insurance fraud&quot;....even if the delay kills someone on the hospital bed.<p>&quot;Everyone gotta carry REAL ID because what if some people are illegal&quot;...even if the delay in getting REAL ID causes legal people to lose their jobs.<p>The only place this &quot;Everyone gotta do XYZ&quot; trope doesn&#x27;t apply is in gun licensing and arms background checks.<p>I have said this in the past, but I will say this again: &quot;America is a country based on denial of rights&quot;.<p>And that one statement explains all the history of America - slavery, red-lining, captive insurance, broken legal immigration, broken college admissions, school-districting etc.

Some points in the article are hit and miss, but mostly correct.<p>For example, Istanbul is flourishing because it&#x27;s the Turkish capital, so it necessarily is the most dense and rich city in the country. The high trust is a positive factor, but plenty of more rural cities and towns in Turkey look quite dumpy (perhaps not as bad a Philly, though)<p>The pictures don&#x27;t really support that either. They depict a fairly average state of urban infrastructure, nothing particularly inviting or welcoming. The people look friendly though, as the culture actively discourages drug use and vice.

We used to have rent subsidies, mental hospitals, all night movie theaters. All gone.

I&#x27;m happy I don&#x27;t live in California anymore. Although some of my taxes were spent on these gender equal shades, I left 13 months ago.

See, Americans grow up thinking that they are the best, and that socialism is there to rob you of your well earned pay. The irony in this is that capitalism instead is the root cause of all the dysfunction and more socialism, not less, would be the only solution to modern American problems.<p>The claim of greatness is obviously false; the failing of public infrastructure, healthcare and education is a common denominator of third world countries in my opinion, not of:<p>&gt; Especially not when compared to the rest of the world, which is all poorer than us. Often much poorer.<p>Ever been to Switzerland? I wouldn&#x27;t state it is poorer than the US. Not even the average EU country is.

The TL;DR here is that California has a housing crisis, which caused homelessness, which caused people to look into a bus stop design which doesn’t serve as a proper shelter.<p>Here’s a data-driven argument that homelessness is a problem with lack of homes, more so than mental health or drugs or whatever else: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.noahpinion.blog&#x2F;p&#x2F;everything-you-think-you-know-about" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.noahpinion.blog&#x2F;p&#x2F;everything-you-think-you-know-...</a><p>Fixing housing will have a lot of great downstream effects.

&gt;A removal of resources for the majority, because of concerns over “misuse” of less than one percent of residents.<p>Ah yes, the American way. The same justification I have heard as to why bathroom stalls <i>need</i> to have gaps and be unpleasant, &quot;What if someone were to have sex and&#x2F;or do drugs in there?!&quot; Let them do it, just let me have a minor moment of privacy while I am pooping.

Because homelessness. Because medical bankrupcy and opioid crisis. Caused by THE SAME industry. Nobody&#x27;s responsible. Because USA is designed by and for small groups of people owning the companies providing for ridiculous money at insane conditions what everywhere else is cheap or free and well regulated.

The US doesn&#x27;t have a homeless problem, California has a homeless problem.