Therapy Session

people couldn't afford their bills long before biden was president lol

Not like now. Not even close. I don't know how you cannot see that. People cannot even put gas in their tanks any more. They were paying between $30 - $40 per fill up. Now they are paying $100 per fill up.

if our economy is dependent on gas fill-ups, we might have to start asking ourselves, "wouldn't a free country allow us not to depend on gas fill-ups? why can't we bike or take a bus instead?"

That's not freedom. No one is forcing anyone to buy a car. The reason why people buy cars is because it is the fastest way to get from point A to point B. People buy cars to be free, not because they are in some forced dependency. People can take public transportation, when public transportation starts at point A and ends at point B. They can ride a bike or a horse. They can walk, skateboard or whatever to get from point A to point B.

Having all sorts of options for mobility is freedom. When you start taking those options away then you are limiting freedom. If you take the automobile away you have severely limited rapid mobility.

"No one is forcing anyone to buy a car"

aight. let me tell you my life story. have fun :)

i live in the mountains in north carolina. my point a is my house. my point b is a small town far south of asheville because that's where my college is. ideally, i have the freedom to go there any method i choose... so long as those methods are cycling, walking, or driving. god knows there's no bus around here.
according to google maps:
walking takes 6 hours
cycling takes 2 hours (and could potentially get you killed)
driving takes 30 minutes.
google's not telling me that uber or lyft is nearby.
and god knows there's no statistics for horseback riding, let alone the fact that the town and fellow sunday drivers won't allow me to stride into downtown on a steed.

alright, i'll drive. except now gas costs me too much and lord knows i really don't like it. do i blame my government? yes, but not the current one. I'll blame the one that forces me to drive. i'll blame the one who happily flattened downtown los angeles for 4-6 lanes. i have no choice other than driving. is that freedom?

"The reason why people buy cars is because it is the fastest way to get from point A to point B"

when you take the sidewalks, buses, streetcars, and trains away, sure. in a properly-designed area built for people to live and work in, cars would be forced to slow down just so people could walk places without having to adhere to the lucky few who can afford such a luxury. it's when you spend extra taxpayer dollars making them go faster at the expense of other systems that they're the fastest. but no matter how many lanes you give a road, it won't beat the convenience and speed of an elevated rail line in chicago, and certainly won't beat laughing at all the suckers traveling one tenth of your speed on the road below you.

even taking the new york subway is technically faster when you factor in:
parking
other drivers
paying attention to pedestrians

long-distance-wise, they only achieve 60 mph on average during a day with no at-capacity congestion. by comparison, even amtrak (the railroad company well-known for losing money) goes faster in the busiest areas; usually at least twice the speed of a car.

"When you start taking those options away then you are limiting freedom. If you take the automobile away you have severely limited rapid mobility"

could literally apply that logic to taking away streetcars and buses and that's the reality we live in

Is someone forcing you to live in the mountains of North Carolina? I don't think you understand what freedom is.

If you are in a situation that you do not like then move. It is just that simple. If it is about college then transfer to another college that has better public transportation (seeing that is your favorite mode of transportation).

It is just your great dislike of automobiles that leads you to the conclusion that you are not free. I find automobiles very freeing with one exception, the government. I do not like how the government rips you off by forcing you to register your vehicle with them once a year. I do not like how the government forces you to get a safety and/or smog inspection. I do not like how the government forces you to buy auto insurance. I do not like how the government add 50 cents or more to the cost of a gallon of gasoline.

Yes, the government did cause the cost of gasoline to skyrocket and it was specifically this administration. The American people had been demanding for decades that we dump OPEC and produce our own oil. Then Islamic terrorism started happening, funded in part by the government forcing us to buy oil from them. Finally Trump comes along and shuts down the buying of oil from foreign countries and the cost of gasoline dropped. Then because Biden is the biggest idiot we have ever had for a president, he stops domestic production of oil and forces us to buy OPEC oil again and the price at the pump skyrocketed. Then to "help" the problem Biden starts releasing our strategic oil reserves which did absolutely nothing other than putting our military in a jam if we ever got into a war. Oh yeah and then the top Democrats keep talking like we are already in a war. Apparently we are in a war against Russia. Thanks Biden. Thanks for starting WWIII.

The Biden administration will be remembered as the administration who looked at everything that made us prosperous and free and then threw that out the window and did the exact opposite.

"Is someone forcing you to live in the mountains of North Carolina?"

moving house is not as easy as one would first think. i'm still having trouble pinpointing where to live overall.

"It is just your great dislike of automobiles that leads you to the conclusion that you are not free"

it is my dislike of automobiles that leads me to the conclusion no one is free. i do have the option to drive. however, not everyone does. you'd probably have a different view on automobiles if for some reason you couldn't use it or buy it.
i know of some gun nuts up the road from where i live who live in a caravan, not a house, with a mentally-ill teenager who uses the gun to shoot bullets into the air for no reason. why do we have mentally-ill teenagers? well, due to the fact that our children can't go anywhere without a car, they suffer from isolation between the ages of 0-16. meanwhile, in well-developed countries, children can take the bus, train, or bicycle to where they'd like to go. here on the other hand, we ask parents why they don't let their kids out and they'll say it's """"""too dangerous"""""".

and why is it apparently too dangerous?

//////cars//////

"I find automobiles very freeing with one exception"

what would that exception be? traffic lights? stop signs? other drivers? road closures? accidents? those horrible left turn lanes in arterial roads?

"the government"

they /were/ the ones who built the freeways and the 6 lane urban streets in the first place.

"I do not like how the government rips you off by forcing you to register your vehicle with them once a year."

better hope your vehicle doesn't get stolen then

"I do not like how the government forces you to get a safety and/or smog inspection."

idk about you, but i prefer to be able to see the road in front of me instead of being hit with car smoke from the car in front of me. also, i like to know that my car actually works. god knows what i'll do if the break lights start to malfunction.

"I do not like how the government forces you to buy auto insurance."

i dislike car insurance companies as much as the next guy, so i'm gonna aim to avoid them... by living in a place where there is bus.

"I do not like how the government add 50 cents or more to the cost of a gallon of gasoline."

i do not like how the government subsidizes the oil industry. it'd be $10 or more if there was no subsidy. in fact, gas is so costly now that amtrak and brightline ridership is beginning to hit pre-pandemic levels. in Germany, gas has always been at least $4, and that's without joe biden.

basically, you can't have a functioning automobile network without most if not all of these government actions, not even oil subsidies.

"Yes, the government did cause the cost of gasoline to skyrocket and it was specifically this administration. ... dump OPEC and produce our own oil."

our domestic oil reserves will run dry anyway. oil dependence is the problem, not where we get our oil, though admittedly i'd prefer our oil come domestically. the problem with american companies, including gas/oil companies, is that they overcharge for everything. in fact, the whole narrative that the government is the only one behind the gas price increases is false. exxon mobil can increase the price of gas to whatever they please in order to get rid of a congress member they don't like, knowing that they'll have a huge army of libertarians defending them.

"Oh yeah and then the top Democrats keep talking like we are already in a war"

top democrats are hyping a war against russia for the military industrial complex and to manipulate the american faith.

"the problem with american companies, including gas/oil companies, is that they overcharge for everything."

Not true. The oil industry has about a 7 to 11% profit margin. That is pretty low in the business world. The reasons why oil prices are so high right now is entirely political. OPEC likes Russia and hates us. Biden knew that but made us dependent on OPEC again. Because Biden is what you would call a blithering idiot (not you specifically, I meant the generic you as in everyone).

Then Biden and the Federal Reserve decided that they need to start printing money nonstop. Quatitative easing is something other countries have tried and have always screwed up causing their currency to collapse. Quatitative easing started under Bush but he went for a quick cash influx and was done. Obama turned the printing presses on and cranked up to 10. Biden apparently turned it up to 11 because he caused the printing of almost 100 Trillion (with a T) dollars just in his first year.

And as you know Nixon took us off of the gold standard and we are on a quasi oil standard now but we are mostly a fiat currency.

Without our currency tied to anything stable, like gold, the government and the Fed are at liberty to mess around with the currency. In Biden's first year the Fed printed almost $100 Trillion dollars. The more dollars in circulation the lower the value of each dollar. Because of that it takes more dollars to equal the value of the dollar when there were fewer in circulation.

In other words this inflation we are living through is Joe Biden's fault. He caused it. It is one of the reasons why gas prices are so high right now.

My gosh, these numbers don't even come from Alt Right sources!

Do you just layer fiction upon fiction and then multiply?

100 TRILLION!!!!

"The oil industry has about a 7 to 11% profit margin"

ever since the price hike, the shell corporation has made 3x the profit it usually makes, while using anecdotes such as OPEC and/or russia to justify such moves and appease their buyers.
if the automobile is really freeing, then why does it depend so much on international conflict not happening?
6iawit.jpg (click to show)

"ever since the price hike, the shell corporation has made 3x the profit it usually makes"

They could only make 3x the profit if their products sold for 3x the price. That may be true in California but not all states. But that is just about percentages. Higher prices mean higher profits.

But here's the kicker. The value of the dollar is worth less. So those "3x the profit" gains aren't real. That is just the number of the paper currency and not the value that paper is supposed to represent. It is just an illusion. Our money is crap and it is 100% the fault of Joe Biden and those who control him.

I do not begrudge Shell or any other oil company or anyone who makes a profit. That is the one of the main reasons why anyone goes into business. It is why people get jobs.

International conflict has been going on long, long before the internal combustion engine. The fact that there is conflict over oil is nothing new. There's conflict over food. There's conflict over everything.

I am far removed from the conflict. My only conflict is what idiot Joe Biden is doing with his WEF overlords. They want the world to be slaves to them.

BTW I have a bicycle also. I can just get to where I want by car a whole lot faster than by bike. Not to mention I don't have to freeze to death in the winter or die of heat exhaustion in the summer. I don't have to struggle with hills. I don't have to worry about cars not seeing me and hitting me. I don't worry about the rain soaking me. My job is about 30 miles away from me, I don't have to get up at 3:00 am to make it to work on time. Not that it really matters because I only have to go into the office once a week and I take public transportation to get there. It turns out that there is a stop a half a block away from my work. Hey, I could drag my bike with me and use it to go that half a block. Nah, too much hassle. Instead, I can load my bike in the back of my truck and drive out to the desert where I can ride my mountain bike just for the fun of it, instead of having to rely on it for my sole transportation.

"The value of the dollar is worth less"

i've been hearing about this inflation as well, yet i've not actually seen the story behind it. yeah, it's happening, but it's been inevitable since the concept of money/currencies was invented.

"I do not begrudge Shell or any other oil company or anyone who makes a profit"

the fact that they profit combined with gaining subsidies is proof that the oil industry are aiming to maintain a monopoly.

"I can just get to where I want by car a whole lot faster than by bike."

while ultimately that depends on the area you live in, the design of american cities ensures that the car is the only way to go.

"Not to mention I don't have to freeze to death in the winter or die of heat exhaustion in the summer"

there's climate change for ya.
not to mention, the human body doing exercise actually warms the body quite a lot, so the freezing gets negated so long as the individual is wearing enough clothing and consistently moving. as for heat exposure, well... traveling at high speeds can produce an artificial breeze for the rider of a bicycle. not to mention that humans do come with this innate biological ability called "sweating," which is built specifically for this sort of thing.

"I don't have to struggle with hills."

1 word: eBikes. scooters exist too, but i find bikes way more efficient

"I don't have to worry about cars not seeing me and hitting me."

three words: segregated bike infrastructure

"My job is about 30 miles away from me, I don't have to get up at 3:00 am to make it to work on time"

like i said earlier, depending on where you live. i'm not forcing you to ride a bike. i will say, however, that suburbanization has made rural areas very inefficient. a long time ago, farmers lived close to railroad termini and relied on trains to deliver goods to city centers, and small towns could be built for residents near said farms and rail lines. many suburbs near Philadelphia and Miami used to be farmland. nowadays real estate developers take away from the people who feed us and force our farmers to rely on trucks, which are multitudes less efficient than the freight trains that took food to urban centers and the passenger trains which created jobs.

"instead of having to rely on it for my sole transportation."

relying on a sole mode of transit sounds bad at first, but compared to a car, bikes are easier to maintain and have fewer failure points & are much cheaper. most americans are confronted with forced car use.

What idiot told you the dollar is worth less?

"better hope your vehicle doesn't get stolen then"

Vehicle registration is not about preventing theft. It is promoting theft. Taxation and registration fees are theft. A license if a freedom that the government took from you and then sold it back to you.

"top democrats are hyping a war against russia for the military industrial complex and to manipulate the american faith."

I'm too lazy, right now, to go start looking for the quotes I have seen from the Dems. I know Biden seems to think we are at war because his advisors are always trying to shut him up but he just keeps blathering. Regardless, I have not been manipulated. I feel bad for Ukraine but that war is between them and Russia. We have nothing to do with it. Well, except for all of the money that Biden is getting from Ukraine and Russia.

"i do not like how the government subsidizes the oil industry."

On this we agree. I don't like ANY government subsidize. But there is one caveat to this. It is still wrong and its still puts a negative strain on the economy when the government subsidizes something, but with the oil companies everyone does get some benefit from those subsidies. Oil subsidies keep the price of oil, diesel fuel, jet fuel, plastics and medicine down a little bit. Everyone benefits either directly or indirectly from all of that. But that just means we are paying those subsidies in our taxes and not directly to the oil industry. Just a reminder, 40% of all oil production goes into plastics and medicines. They rest goes into fuel.

"our domestic oil reserves will run dry anyway."

There is strong evidence that says that oil is renewable. There have been several wells that had been considered dry that have filled back up again. Oil is not created by dead dinosaurs. It is something that is produced by the planet. I haven't read how and I don't think there has been much research into that. It is a biological substance, that is why the trillions of gallons of oil that seeps out of the ocean floor (on its own, not caused by man) doesn't pollute the ocean.

"A license if a freedom that the government took from you and then sold it back to you."

they also forced this system upon us by killing off our interurban companies, so there's a solution right there.

"I know Biden seems to think we are at war because his advisors are always trying to shut him up but he just keeps blathering"

something i do appreciate about biden is that he won't shut up.
"let's go brandon."
"i agree."

just watch kamala's facial expression in this video. it kills
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqiOeiG4VNo

if anything, trump became boring as hell from 2018 onwards. biden is still consistently funny somewhat.

if this is true, it does seem he is being manipulated to support the military industrial complex, which anyone who has been a bernie sanders voter will have seen it as inevitable since 2019.

"Well, except for all of the money that Biden is getting from Ukraine and Russia."

from? ukraine is one of the poorest countries in europe. russia does have oil ties, but most have been cut off along with nearly every other industry. it's biden spending the money and giving ukraine handheld missiles if anything.

"but with the oil companies everyone does get some benefit from those subsidies. Oil subsidies keep the price of oil, diesel fuel, jet fuel, plastics and medicine down a little bit"

it also means that railroad companies have to fight tooth and nail to even stay alive.

"Everyone benefits either directly or indirectly from all of that"

not railroad companies. because oil primarily benefits car sales and airlines, railroads looking to operate efficient electric trains are already at a disadvantage from subsidies.

"There is strong evidence that says that oil is renewable."

may i see it?

"It is a biological substance, that is why the trillions of gallons of oil that seeps out of the ocean floor (on its own, not caused by man) doesn't pollute the ocean."

sounds like harvesting it is going to be hell to pay compared to just installing solar panels or providing every american with an ebike.

Absolutely! This should be on the front page.

BrandonManBadDdD!

BDS vs TDS
Who would win?

Oil may have crashed to zero (or below zero?) when the donald was prez but unfortunately that doesn't mean free gas. Anyone who could buy and store oil from that time must've made boatloads $$$