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this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2023
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Fuck Cars
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Doesn't the economic benefits of a longer commute time offset the costs of these depressive symptoms?
Which economic benefits are you alluding to?
there are so many:
there are soo many ways that a long commute supports the economy. it could be selfish to not commute in a motor vehicle for less than an hour each way.
This illustrates very well how broken our economic system is lol. What benefits "the economy" (GDP) is not what benefits real people/communities.
It's also well documented by strongtowns how car infrastructure specifically devastates local communities and bankrupts cities due to how exorbitantly expensive it is. Long car commutes may increase the GDP of a country, but local areas suffer.
Look man, I understand that hundreds of dead babies sounds like a tragic thing. But please, think about the jobs created for the people that dig their mass graves.
Those are no benefits but just examples for economically uneducated positions. Work is not an end in itself but just a tool. A broken window that is replaced by one miner, one glass producer and one craftsman has less value compared to an unbroken window and 3 persons with free time to create for example a new window.
Cars and car-centric lifestyles come with incredible economic cost.
Wish I could enjoy some of these things but unfortunately I'm stuck commuting 🤷
So if I'm understanding correctly, your position is that spending money on vehicle maintenance, fuel, healthcare (presumably for treating the depression?) from a long commute is going to improve the economy by an amount greater than how much the "depressive symptoms" impact the economy?
Or in other words, it's fine that there are more cases of depression because it benefits the economy. It hinges on the assumption that someone with depression is "bad for the economy" and that the economy matters more than peoples' suffering. This is an inherently ableist and morally bankrupt perspective, as is usually the case when distilling everything down to a utilitarian equation.
it's incredible isn't it?
seems like this is how it works to me anyway