No, sorry,I was being us-centric - it seemed like that’s where the thread was.

As one very specific example, when COViD funding for school lunches ended, some us states decided to no longer provide free school lunches. Massachusetts passed a “millionaire tax” and funded free school lunches out of that

As a slightly older example, Massachusetts passed effectively universal healthcare coverage, signed into law by governor Mitt Romney, and later served as the model for the Affordable Care Act

Looking at school system ratings by us state, I see what looks like a strong correlation between excellent schools and a stronger economy.

Well said!

When I was a teen, I was definitely fiscally conservative. Paying better attention to how you use money is easy to understand and a central pillar of politics. But it was a sheltered life in a town with all well-paying jobs, no diversity, and an excellent education system.

Now I keep floating left the more I realize how many people missed out of that picture.

But it was my kids that really did it. Fighting for better opportunities for them easily turns into wanting a better world for them to live in. I’m more worried than ever about my government’s poor money habits and when it will eventually come due, but we’re in the middle of a rolling disaster of short term and misplaced spending, our politicians more concerned with scapegoats and spite than actually benefitting their constituents

I became much more progressive after living in a “blue state” for much of my adult life. It’s hard to miss that the most successful economies in the us are also the ones who pay most attention to quality of life. We can look at the contrast in our neighboring states, and see the advantages brought by near universal healthcare, investments in an excellent education system, care about the environment, higher minimum wage, support for unions, and so much more

Where are those youth in the US? While they seem loud online, why hasn’t that translated into votes?

What if you start to become better off, but realize so many other parents are unable to provide for their kids like you can, and you can’t hope to provide for your kids like the wealthy can? What if paying exorbitant amounts of money for your kids education drives home the point that we need to make that investment for all kids futures? What if you are more often on the hiring side and realize your well being depends on the next generation having opportunities and the means to successfully achieve them?

What if my goals include family values, such as opportunity for my kids to earn a good living, live a long and healthy life, enjoy the environment, in a world better than the one I had?

Ebooks for the win. I “go to” my library all the time by finding an ebook on Libby and downloading to a reader

Boneless chicken with bones

Excellent news.

It really needs to mention the US, though. I know this is about Europe, and trying to celebrate good news, and you’re probably tired of us making everything about the US, but we’ve “earned” our place in any article about climate change or carbon emissions.

My country deserves to be named and shamed for lagging in something so critical. It needs to be nagged continuously to catch up. It needs to be reminded of the impact it has made and continues to make. There are still so many people who don’t believe it’s real or don’t think it will impact them and don’t care who it does impact, so many both politicians and constituents who can’t look beyond their immediate desires.

I feel like Chinas carbon emissions will just disappear suddenly. Yeah, they’re using way too much coal, and still growing with fossil fuels, but consider their growth in renewables. The good thing about dictatorships is that it’s possible to build out renewables faster than the rest of the world combined, but among the many bad parts is you’re not balancing supply with demand. There’s no way they don’t suddenly have a huge glut of power and have to decide what to shut down permanently

it’s very clear that the the EPA is allowed to act

Are you sure about that? Did Congress spell out how to handle those specific pollutants?

And if there’s a highway, why don’t they talk about it on c|trees

(And why doesn’t the markdown page say how to reference communities?)

But you do have to pay that shit back … forever. And printing money leads to currency devaluation, makes everything else more expensive

Even if you don’t think the debt itself is unmanageable, you start having problems like

• https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/10/11/america-may-soon-be-spending-more-on-debt-service-than-defence

Looks like it had been expected to heal by 2040, but might also be affected by by climate change - reminder that even when we fix climate change, CO2 stays in the atmosphere over a century. We can only stop making things worse, but it’s your great grand children who stand to really benefit

For a “cheap “ suburb of Boston

• $580k for 1,038 sq ft 2 br on a 5,000 sq ft lot. The homes on this area were originally built as summer cottages so they’re going to be expensive to heat. Of 12 single family homes for sale, 7 are over $1M and one is in a different town
• $265k for a 1 br condo, 579 sq ft. The only feature listed is “private entrance”. Second cheapest is a new townhouse for $1.5M

From the perspective of age, we’re always careening one direction to another one potential catastrophe to another. It’s never pretty in the short term, in the small details. However from the larger perspective, the direction of society approximates a middle of the road direction.

For your own sanity, step back from the immediate details and see where we’re heading from a more safe distance

I was lucky enough to travel to India once, and try some great food … I wanted to be vegetarian while there, simply because it was so good. The guys thought they were being helpful pointing out meat dishes everywhere we went, but it was typically an afterthought on the menus, not well prepared, not worth eating.

— In an American restaurant the focus is on meat and it is well prepared so that’s what I’m looking for

— in my limited experience with restaurants in India, the focus was on foods that didn’t have meat, and was very well prepared, so that’s what I’m looking for

As long as the vegetarian option is a substitute, or an option, or doing without, rather than the focussing on a good meal, most of will have no reason to select it, no reason to expect it to be a good choice