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Joined 10 months ago
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Cake day: June 21st, 2025

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  • I wouldn’t say I disagree per se, but I do have some issues with the argument.

    EV tax concessions and student debt reductions may benefit the well off more, but they also encourage greater uptake in education and help address climate change. Everyone is fucked if we don’t address climate change quickly enough, and so speed is paramount.

    On education, I would consider it a failure of society if only people from well-off families are attending university. We need a highly educated populace to counter the rampant misinformation and disinformation that permeates the world today, and to participate in a society and economy that is becoming increasingly complex. I’d prefer a move back to free university to be honest, but by the authors argument, this would be even more unfair.

    And on universal vs means testing, a separate argument against it is that these systems become very punitive. Our welfare system is decent on balance, but people who access it can end up being treated like a criminal and have to jump through excessive hoops because of the enforcement mechanisms to deal with purported abuse.

    That all being said, I do think governments should try to address inequality as much as possible, so if policies can thread the needle of means testing that is restrained and not punitive while keeping costs reasonable, I’m all for it.













  • I suspect much of it is a fear of change. People are looking for a remotely plausible reason to dismiss it, even if it doesn’t apply to them, because it means they won’t have to modify their behaviour. You can see this with plant based diets, public and active transport, and cooking and heating technologies such as induction cooktops and heatpumps.

    The plus side is that the moment people actually make the change, they rarely go back. See also congestion pricing across the world, where the view of it is negative right up until it’s implemented and it almost immediately becomes popular.


  • It’s just the nature of the issue. Transmission lines are primarily going through rural areas, so consequently that is where the opposition is centred.

    And there’s a strong streak of anti-renewable and anti-transmission sentiment in the regions, much of it inflamed by disinformation locally and online.

    NIMBYs are a slightly different problem in that it’s primarily about protecting property values rather than mostly ideological opposition in the regions. Which attitude is worse is up for debate, but yeah, I’d prefer both groups had less power to oppose needed infrastructure.