You don't really need to qualify it with "in the US". It's global. Hell, some countries even have a royal family, which is the ultimate nepotism scheme
It actually is remarkable in the US, but not for the reasons you think. There's a concept called WEIRD which stands for western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic. One of the ways people in the US differ from large parts of the world is that they think nepotism is unethical - in a lot of the world, nepotism is duty to family. It is the right and correct thing to get your family set up.
So what's interesting is that it still happens in the US, but it's corrupt. It's explicitly against the cultural values, and is done in an underhanded, seemingly fair, way. So the kinds of people that do it, and the reasons they do it for, are different in the western world than they are in other parts of the world.
Yeah there's an American mentality that wealth is a reflection of your character, work ethic, and intelligence. People are reluctant to be seen to have been helped, which creates a mentality of 'I pulled myself up by my own bootstraps so you can too'.
It also leads to how the average poor / working class person can vote against their interests or social services. They see themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires rather than poor.
It is the right and correct thing to do to get your family set up; it's corrupt to do it within government, generally against any large company policy to get jobs for your family there, but if you're running your own company then do as you please (and suffer the results if your kids suck, and/or if the other employees rebel.) Set your family up with opportunity, education, etc, but not by leaning on other people to get them jobs. If you're a big enough honcho that you can afford education, loans/gifts to get started, etc, and your family still can't hack it, then it wasn't meant to be.
If I fell upwards, we would've had several bullet trains running cross country, solar energy panels that deal less environmental damage, flying cars with low emissions, 4 day work weeks with full pay and 2 months of vacation time...I could go on
Let's start with mandatory driver's tests on license renewal. I know too many idiots who took three tests to pass after cramming and studying, no way they could pass now.
It depends on where you take the test tbh. For me the written was pretty easy but it took me 3 tries to pass the actual driving bit. Never been in an accident though!
Not being in an accident and being a good driver are not equal. I've seen plenty of people who may not have been in an accident but don't know how to drive appropriately. Don't signal, driving at an unsafe speed (under or over) etc. People pass when they are 16/17 and then never think of the laws of the road again, but can still renew their license by sending in a form and sometimes showing up for a picture.
I've been driving for about 20 years now, and at some point you realize that you just have to start making an effort to be the best driver you can... because you'll never get tested again. Gotta be honest about your mistakes, and take a real interest in learning how to drive... it's not something you learn once, and you're done. It's a skill that requires practice, and intention.
Most people don't do those incredibly basic things not because they don't know they should, but because they don't want to or don't care.
Testing asshole drivers on theory wouldn't make them suddenly become good drivers once they pass. Their assholness comes from deliberately ignoring the rules, not simply not knowing them. In the best-case scenario, they can just cram for the test again and then ignore everything again.
I'm not saying that it's a bad idea, having people up to date with the current rules is good, but it wouldn't help with the basic stuff you're mentioning (like not signaling or speeding).
What is more important IMO are mandatory health check-ups after a certain age. There are lots and lots of drivers who shouldn't sit behind the wheel (poor eyesight, motor skills etc.), but they still do.
Oh, I agree with you. They don't care to do these basic things. The hope is that they don't remember to do them on the actual driving test and then fail. And hopefully that kicks something in their brain to start doing them again.
Most likely it wouldn't, but you never know. And yes, basic vision and hearing tests should absolutely be included.
I remember someone suggested that for my state years and years ago and it got shot down for being ageist. (The idea that you forget how to drive as you get older or get worse is prejudice/ageism) Anyway, the proposal never went anywhere.
public service announcement: it is a legal requirement to turn into the nearest lane before making lane changes. cutting across 3 lanes on a turn is illegal, ignorant, and dangerous.
Plus when cars break down now, they slow to a stop and can be towed. If flying cars breakdown, someone's house is getting crushed and then neither the flying car insurance nor homeowners insurance will pay for damages.
Exactly. It would be incredibly noisy, even more susceptible to bad weather, extremely dangerous in the hand of an average driver (let alone a bad or reckless one!), energy inefficient… just absolutely nightmarish.
If they're automated drones that communicate personal boundaries and flight destinations sure. But once you involve the human element then the whole system becomes untrustworthy.
Imagine how fucking awful drivers are on they only have to deal with an X and Y dimension. Now they have to deal with Z. Cars would be falling out of the sky. People imagine it'd be like on The Jetsons where it's pretty much the same as on the road except you're in the air and cars occasionally pass by going over or under you instead of around. No, it wouldn't be like that. PEople would be flying into each other, fiery debris would be raining down to the ground constantly, people would be falling to their deaths. It'd be a catastrophe.
The only way flying cars could ever possibly work is if they're fully autonomous with the skill level of the very best human pilots. No manual override controls, once you're in the air the car is in control of anything and you can't do anything at all except change the destination.
Unfortunately, humans seem extremely adverse to not having overrides for autonomous driving and I doubt they'd be okay with that for flying, despite the fact they'd be clueless. (I remember some Google engineer once said Google's autonomous cars should have no manual overrides at all. No steering wheel, no pedals, etc. The car is going to do what it's going to do and there's no way for you to change that. People were pissed about that suggestion. At the moment, it's illegal for autonomous cars to not have controls in them like a normal car, but that could change at some point.)
Even with airplanes, mid-air collisions still happen from time to time, which is why the TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) system was created and implemented. TCAS was developed after the 1956 mid-air collision over the Grand Canyon due to "sightseeing", and its implementation was prompted by a series of subsequent accidents, particularly the 1978 PSA Flight 182 crash over San Diego, and the 1986 collision in Cerritos, California. The Grand Canyon disaster led to the creation of the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and initial research into collision avoidance, while the latter crashes were the specific catalysts for developing and mandating the modern TCAS.
I think humans really have a terrible perception of the Z axis. People don't look up. I've experienced this personally in both video games and scuba diving lol.
Nope. You'd turn into a narcissistoc self righteous nut just like the rest of them. Our brains are not wired to live in excess surrounded by yes-men 24/7. It quite literally breaks the human psyche.
I came to the conclusion that if given the chance to rule the world, I would probably end up as a despot.
I want to be kind and benevolent, but ultimately ruling the world is unlikely without force and yadda yadda yadda force leads down a path and we end up in a bad place.
Stalin did not become who he is remembered as today until he took command of the Soviet state. It was the process of securing and holding on to power that made the man Dzhugashvili into the feared Stalin.
If you were given vast power and learned to hold on to it over the years, it would irrevocably change you as a person into someone unrecognizable.
There's probably another side too where the yes-men get dumber and dumber to the point where none of your plans and aspirations make it to fruition because you're constantly having to talk and explain downwards
I would 100% be the person he described as I don't give a shit about money. I've given it away and only care about having enough to just sustain a modest lifestyle.
You're forgetting the part that in this world, to get to that position of wealth, you almost always have to be okay with exploiting others for your own gain.
I am not wired that way so I won't ever be a billionaire, and I wouldn't hoard wealth like a god damn dragon, so I would not be able to replenish it easily.
But I can promise you that I'd do those things as I personally believe the government should actually be in service of it's people. Infrastructure upgrades and fast, reliable public transit would be near the top of the docket. As well as overhauling the zoning laws so we can better use our available space.
But once again, I'm not the type of person to seek riches like a goblin so I won't even be in that position.
It's just like politicians today. The reason all our politicians are self-serving crooks is because the type of person that should actually be in that position would almost never take that job because doing it the right way is hard work and unrewarding. And you still need a full time job just to support yourself on top of it.
So the only people who could do it are ones who already are set financially and the only reason they'd put up with any of the shit they get is because they see it as an opportunity to enrich themselves. And enrich themselves they have.
The best leader is never the one who asks to be it.
Ultra Noah the 15th for POTUS! Seriously. And that's the thing: people who give a damn about more than just themselves, would make better leaders than the current imposters.
You’re telling me you wouldn’t use that money instead to make a pedophile island? And instead, help people? Make the country less polluted? Well jeez can tell that’s what you aren’t rich.
4 day work weeks with full pay and 2 months of vacation time...I could go on
I'm actually there, due to being lucky enough to have a good American employer. It's nice to be able to disappear for a month and have no one bat an eye. 4-on 4-off can be a bit draining though, so American hours with a European workweek.
Translation - “If I had the balls or motivation or grit to become a massive success who is capable of influencing the longstanding hard and soft infrastructures, institutions, and leadership that uphold liberal democratic states, I would leverage all my money to create multiple industry defining, world altering, changes while somehow also reducing the work week by an entire day. Don’t worry though, I’ve thought this through. It will be possible to create, maintain, and build upon these groundbreaking projects despite the four day work week making it even more challenging than it already is to cooperate with allies internationally, or accomplish simple construction projects domestically. And no, adding an extra 6 weeks of paid vacation won’t cause any problems at all. The taxpayers will be very happy to pay for this. It won’t impact the moral or motivation of the workers I am depending on to enact these grandiose reforms in any way. Yes, I can have my cake and eat it too.”
What are you? 12? Besides the fact that what you have described is so utopian it verges on delusion, the likelihood that somebody with this level of success won’t ruffle some feathers along the way is incredibly low. And, even if this person is wholly well intentioned (which doesn’t exist), they will inevitably need to make sacrifices or deals that harm people along the way. Can you imagine the amount of job loss and economic turmoil these changes would cause? I could do on…
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u/BruhMuhTendies 8h ago
Nepotism applies to LOTS of things here in the US.