Eh. Not the op, but calm backroads are perfect for such rides. Good enough surface so no need to scan it for the better line as on gravel roads or offroad. Little traffic. And cars are much more predictable than the chaos of bike paths.
Latin was the language for education and science waaaay beyond ex Roman Empire. Pretty much whole christian europe used Latin in medieval age and beyond.
People tend to agree that immigration enforcement can be necessary (except for that pocket of philosophical bohemians that accept that people should be able to flow as free or freer than capital if we are truly free at all). But interestingly, most people feel immigrants that did not enter through legal means should be able to stay in a lot of circumstances!
People almost universally agree that stripping citizenship from naturalized citizens is way too far (no cite here, just recalling a recent read).
There is something fishy about where someone happened to be born (or looks/sounds like they’re from), where they are, and the relationships between different government blowhards having a bigger impact on their life than just being a decent person trying to get by.
Yeah, but part of that is that national sovereignty is a just-so-happens meme of an idea that sticks around because we all agree that it should and alternative arrangements could be worse.
On the other hand, people dying is a real concept. Their deaths because some people think that other people shouldn't be around and appealing to national sovereignty to enforce that is a leap into the absurd.
At the end of the day, societal institutions exist because we choose by action and by decision to support them. If they aren't supported, the world and the trust network become dramatically reduced in size.
The green deal stuff seems to be pretty bad. Manufacturing seems to have a hard time. The next tier economy, e.g. AI, is not seen on the horizon. Over-the-top regulations for agriculture and then opening up the market from goods where such regulations don't exist does not seem smart either.
And there're lots and lots of small things like those.
Yeah, I meant mostly the 80s and 90s (i.e. the period when the Western European countries were able to keep up with the US or ever narrow the gap). Since then they have just been coasting on top of that.
EU became a thing in 1993. And soon after Europe could not keep up with US of A anymore. Even though USSR was gone, EU expanded and so on. Coincidence?
IMO it's conflict of interest of some short-sighted naive idealists vs people who want to get stuff done.
For example, solar. Shit ton of euromoneys is poured into subsidies. But those subsidies are not geofenced. Thus vast majority of people go for chinese stuff. It could have been much better to subsidise locally produced components only. Then price would be +/- the same.
Now chinese components are dirt cheap with all the subsidies. I myself went for chinese components, because break-even period was like 5 vs 10 years. I'll just pihole the inverter from calling home once I figure out how to get some statistics without the manufacturer's app.
I guess some people decided it's better to get 2-3x more solar installed power ASAP rather than prop up the local solar industry.
For phone cases, maybe, but not for everything under 150 EUR…
On top of that, local retailers have to comply with EU regulations etc. while Chinese imports are notorious for not following safety/recycling standards etc., which unbalances the playing field away from local retailers anyway.
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