My guess is the amount they decide to charge is not an arbitrary number, but one that covers their expenses based on expected engagement.

They charge the amount that gives them the most benefit. That definitely includes profit as a factor. Likely a large one. Companies don’t lower their prices when costs go down. They take in more profit.

To be blunt, that’s not at all relevant to the fact that they should have the same rights as everyone else if they do choose to do it.

So what is it that they actually want?

No bike lanes. But they know they can’t say that, so they hem and haw about “careful cautious progress” that looks very suspiciously like no progress at all. They talk about compromise, but their idea of compromise is they get everything they want, and everyone else just has to work around that.

This video is about racism, but the same general points apply to urbanism and car dependency.

This timestamp til about 20mins (17:45 to 20:00) names a bunch of specific examples (of racism), and explains the thought process behind dismissing them as examples, which again, very much applies to urbanism and car dependency.

(Also the entire video series is good, but not quite relevant here)

Basically, they don’t want anything to actually change. They have no problem admitting that symptoms are problems, but fixing the core issue would require admitting that they’re part of that core issue, and they’d have to change. And they don’t want to.

They’re responding to the “Light Bulb Companies” part, not the “selling quality products” part. That video very clearly (10-15 mins too long) shows that Light Bulb Companies had legitimate reasons for limiting light bulb hours.

While the Phoebus Cartel may have artificially limited the lifespan of lightbulbs, there was a legitimate reason to do so, and it wasn’t just planned obsolescence so you buy more.

you are arguing against a city with quality public transportation which is not always the case and wasn’t the original arguement.

It should be, and we should be making those changes, so arguing that something is only a problem if the given situation really should be temporary isn’t a very good argument. Arguing that this change is a problem (It still isn’t for the majority of people) if we’re dealing with problems in other areas (So this change itself isn’t even the problem, it just exacerbates another one, that we should be fixing anyway), isn’t a very good argument.

I think the biggest point the other poster is arguing is that personal choice comes into play.

“Personal Choice” is only an argument when it doesn’t affect other people. Having a 2 hour commute by car definitely does. And even if it didn’t, it has a large effect on the person doing it. And we block/disincentivize people from doing other harmful things. Why is this one special?

It’s not the employers job to tell you how to get to work,

Good thing nobody suggested it was.

nor is it their responsibility if you want to take a job a distance from your house

So commutes should be unpaid, despite the only reason you do it is because of work? Why are commutes different from other work? They pay when you’re moving between jobsites, why is this different? “Employers don’t have control over it”? Did you know relocation packages are a thing? Lobbying for loosened zoning, so we can have higher density? Better public transit? They have far from 0 control over it.

its their job to find the best candidate who is willing to do the job offered.

And they need to include a variety of circumstances, one of which is the employee’s proximity to any jobsites, because how long it takes them to get there is very much relevant in many industries. And in the ones it isn’t, remote work is quite often possible.

You also argue against the argument that people won’t move house every time they change job.

I didn’t though. In fact, if you’re planning on a 2 hour commute, you should be considering moving closer, or not taking that job.

It sounds extreme, but it is always an option for the employee and a part of free choice.

We also block people from purchasing food with bleach in it. That’s part of free choice, isn’t it? Why is this choice so important that it should be up to the person to make? The externalities of having a 2 hour commute are massive, and even just the effects on the person themselves are also huge. Since these 2 hour commutes are mostly done by car, that’s a huge mental load on the person doing the commute, and a lot of emissions, which we should be avoiding.

No, people should not be free to choose a 2 hour car commute.

Because that just limits people’s ability to find employment.

Not really? In cities with actual functional public transit, you can go way further than you can with a car. In cities with reasonable density, the stuff you need, including job opportunities, aren’t 2 hours away to begin with. The problem isn’t incentivizing short commutes.

Even in my city with mediocre transit, and that’s got way more sprawl than necessary for the population, I can cross the city, a distance of 20 miles/31km, using transit, in 1.5hrs. The problem isn’t incentivizing short commutes.

I’ve had jobs where I lived 10 minutes away, and took a different job with a further commute because it paid significantly more.

How much further? 30 mins? 2 hours? Let me guess, you used a car because transit and density is bad?

Should an employee have to up and move their house every time they change employers, or should employees be able to decide if a long commute is worth it to them based on the offer?

That’s a loaded question, a strawman, and a black or white fallacy. It isn’t an either/or, and you’re reaching for the absolute most unreasonable scenario that’s unlikely to happen to begin with. That’s called arguing in bad faith.

And this is a problem because…?

Okay… how does the diversity in Starfield or Far Cry 6 feel contrived?

Why aren’t the characters believable? How does that mean they’re just there for forced diversity, instead of just being badly written? If the character was white, with no other changes, would they still be bad characters that aren’t believable?

Start by defining “woke”.

That doesn’t change that they can’t do it forever.

They can’t do it forever. They’re desperately hoping the union drive will give up soon.

A) That is union busting

B) It’s fucking expensive, both in actual costs and lost revenue, to keep doing that. Eventually the company will realize they can’t afford it and stop, or they’ll go bankrupt.

C) Being forced to recognize the union means you need to negotiate with the union. Which means you need to make a union contract. Which can include language about how closing down locations is handled. Or how opening up new locations is handled. Like, say, they can only hire new union workers. So they can close down 1 location, then they have to hire union anyway at the new location, so what’s the point?

To be blunt, what you’re describing has exactly 0% chance of working out in the company’s favour over the long term. More than that, it has little chance of even working in the first place. It’s this absurd idea based in nothing.

It’s trivially easy to get a driver’s license in US and Canada, and you don’t need regular retesting.

So yes, but that’s not the point.

Unfortunately there are an awful low of complete morons allowed to drive.

What law? There is no such law in either the US or Canada (US because the internet is generally US-Centric, Canada because that’s where I am)

all cars have speed limiters

Incorrect.

we’re talking about regulations, not limiters.

Also incorrect.

You need a license, registration, inspection, and insurance to drive a car.

Literally none of those are speed limiters.

We also happen to have a pro-union president

Lol.

Lmao even

Remember when he broke the railworkers’ strike?

It’s not about taking it away from someone else, it’s about removing unnecessary car lanes that just induce car traffic.

But not my city. Calgary was built as a stop on the Trans Canadian Railway

Calgary had a pretty extensive Streetcar network around downtown once upon a time.

https://saadiqm.com/2019/04/13/calgary-historic-streetcar-map.html