this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
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Full disclosure, I only read the first 3 paragraphs because it seems you missed a key part of my point:
If you have transports close to home that can take you to your work place, but you choose to drive a car anyway, then the problem isn't the state giving it a priority over other options, the problem is you. Clearly, the state improving transports and making them more accessible wouldn't make a difference to you.
And are you arguing that most people east most of their meals at fast food places? Because I'm sure we both know that's not true. Firstly, at least where I live that's not affordable, fast food or not. Most people do their shopping around once a week and cook at home, because that's what is actually affordable to most people. Secondly, most fast food places offer vegan and vegetarian options nowadays, and even before that plenty of them offered chicken or fish, both of which are much better than beef, and even pork. So I really don't understand how this is a reasonable excuse for the incredibly large consumption of beef, as well as dairy products. You can also go on any big forum that doesn't skew left so much and doesn't care so much about the environment, and you'll quickly find out most people's views on vegans and vegetarians, and see that for most people it is not an access issue.
And why do you need disposable plastic goods? I'm sure you can come up with some rare scenario like a 1 in 10000 occurrence that would justify it, but that's very obviously beside the point because of what I said at the start. Do you need to buy sodas, which come in plastic bottles? Do you need to buy water in plastic bottles? Do you need disposable plastic utensils, like forks, knifes, plates, cups? Because all those sell quite well around the world. I'll also add this comment someone wrote in another thread a while ago:
what would happen if everyone turned around and said ‘you know what, fuck companies that sell drinks in bottles i’m never going to be without my refillable bottle’ how long would coca-cola keep producing 100 billion plastic bottles a year? what would they do with them?
But if James Quincey said ‘fuck it, I’m not producing plastic bottles anymore they’re bad for the planet’ but 8 billion people said ‘oh ok, well we’re still going to regularly buy drinks in plastic bottles’ the numbers of plastic bottles being made would dip slightly but only while Ramon Laguarta rushed to spend the flood of money now coming in to scale up production at pepsi co.
It's a two way problem. As long as most people keep wanting those things, then they will keep being produced. And policy will not change it unless you install a dictatorship.
Anyway, like I said, I didn't read the rest of the comment because it seems you missed an important cornerstone of my point, and I'm too tired to keep arguing, so I'm sorry but I'll leave it there. Have a good night or day wherever you are.