[mikerichards]

you pop into the market as you walk past it on the way home from work,

We're not European, we're not going to be European...ever. We just don't "pop in" to some market while we're walking by. We pop-in while we're driving by or we plan to drive 5 minutes to an awesome supermarket.

Just stop this constant crap about walking and "only if we're like some European village" crap that will never happen in America.

[robotresearcher]

> that will never happen in America.

It happens a lot in New York City, and other dense urban areas in the US.

[mikerichards]

Where besides NYC? Nowhere. Americans like their cars. They like to drive. America is not the collectivist/statists that represent modern HN...which is pretty sick.

Hackers are anti-establishment! Hackers are not conformists that defer to government minders!

[rlucas]

The insanity in your comment is the idea that urban density is the statist / authoritarian / corrupt central planning piece.

Try reading Louis Hyman's "Debtor Nation," particularly the bits on FHA and the creation of a national (and heavily subsidized) mortgage market.

The sub/exurbs, the essential symbiotes of car culture, are the dirigiste statist artifacts.

(yes, also a lot of the people who want to have you sell your Nissan Armada are also like that, and it's fair of you to call out statist authoritarian where you see them. But it's lunacy to suggest that suburbs and car culture just represent an organic Choice of the Free Market™)