Well, I make far less than MW, so sure. But, there are those who make a bit more than I do. If you make $50 an hour, would you take that deal?
If so, why didn’t you just take a cab or an Uber? You’d still be in traffic, but if you are not driving, then it is sitting in a car, doing whatever work or entertainment you feel like doing, not sitting in miserable rush hour traffic.
This is not backed up by the fact that they could live closer to where they worked, but they would make less, or they would live in a house they less preferred.
I know plenty of people who made the choice to increase their commute by half an hour or more, for much less than a 10% pay increase.
But, not enough value to live close to where you work, pay for someone else to drive, take mass transit, or agree to pay taxes to improve roads or aforementioned mass transit.
But, it is valuable enough to take exception to someone bringing attention to a problem that is harming many of your fellow citizens.
I think it’s to get the cow off the tracks when it gets hit so the train doesn’t derail. I don’t see how a cow survives getting hit by a train just because the front is shaped like a wedge.
I didn’t say they couldn’t put cushions on the cowcatchers.
Of course, I would like to see the part of the Constitution that says ‘Congress shall make no law interfering with the right of loonies to block the public roads’, but I am open to persuasion.
Still and all, I want to be reasonable. If they have a right to stand in the road, and I have a right to drive on the road, then I don’t see how both of us can’t exercise our rights at the same time. I might even slow down when I see them. Probably.
Well, the real way to avoid murdering cows is not to run trains into them, but we’re going to assume the trains have to run for the greater good.
I’m unclear on the greater good being served by ramming police cars into protesters, regardless of how the cars are equipped. Of course, Shodan is now in full-blown “I’m only kidding (not-kidding) about killing people! Can’t anybody here take a joke about which I am partly serious? Aw, c’mon, I don’t really mean it, though I somewhat do. I certainly probably wouldn’t actually kill anyone, ha-ha.”
Shodan: Do you feel the same way about construction workers? They shut down streets all the time. Or do you only want to maim those that hold different political positions from you?
If someone ran over your family member with a car because they were peacefully protesting would you tell them oh well you deserved it? Womp womp?
I’m not a great test case here, because I actually DO live close to work, and timeshift away from the main rush hours, and pay significant amounts of local and vehicle taxes annually. I also 100% support higher gas taxes (although they’ll never happen), and actually miss the brief period when gas was near $5 a gallon for premium, because it actually helped reduce the traffic significantly.
And this is largely because I, like most sentient beings, hate traffic, and have taken these and other steps to avoid it, and largely succeed in avoiding it. But in one of those unavoidable times when I AM stuck in it? I’d happily pay a half hour of my hourly rate (which is several multiples of $50 an hour) to be magically and instantly whisked home.
An Uber or a driver isn’t the same as instantly transporting yourself home. You’re still stuck in traffic, you’re still breathing exhaust fumes, your driver is probably irritated, and you can’t play with puppies / interact with loved ones / do chores / cook dinner, etc. It’s inherently less valuable time than “home time” even if you’re not the one doing the driving. It’s also not an option if you drove yourself there in the first place because it would leave your car stranded somewhere, but is something you would have to choose to do on both ends of your trip (and most often when I’m stuck in rush hour, it’s only at one end due to the timeshifting, living close, etc). Sure, an Uber is worth something, and I have taken them into core downtown locations on occasion to avoid traffic and parking hassles, but it’s not a 1:1 comparison.
Incidentally, I created a poll based on this thread asking others on the Dope where they would locate a protest they hated.
Maybe you were thinking that the population is made up of rational adults with the ability to make independent choices under their own agency, rather than vindictive spiteful reactionaries.
I don’t think we need to go too far in the weeds here to see that Shodan’s in the long tradition of people who think that brutalizing nonviolent protestors is a proportionate response. Thus the Bull Connor reference.
Assholes who block roads are just assholes standing in the road. I don’t care what their motivation is. Is that the kind of attention the protestors wanted?
Frankly, if any crowd deserves to get physically crushed, I nominate unruly mobs of people celebrating a championship win by a local sports team. Sure, celebrate all you like, but when windows start getting smashed and cars start getting flipped, the busting of heads is now justified.
Isn’t that the current SNAFU political situation? People not listening to what the other sides concerns are? It doesn’t matter what you actually say, some asshole will tell you what you meant to say, and then tell you why their version of what you didn’t actually say is morally wrong, and condemn you for saying it. Life goes on.
In the mean time, don’t protest ON roadways, don’t make an protesting ass of yourself in a restaurant while I’m trying to eat, and don’t ever fuck with people who lined up to get their morning fix of coffee.