1339
America, exblain (thelemmy.club)
submitted 3 days ago by to c/fuckcars@lemmy.world
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[–] 99 points 3 days ago (13 children)

Imagine how this would disempower landlords if you could commute to either of those cities from anywhere between them.

Car dependency is about power, it's about keeping workers vulnerable and reliant on constant employment to participate in society. The one thing the US and Canada has over other imperial powers is the obscene amount of space each state has at its disposal within the metropole with which to construct what really is an exceptional form of oppression. It's important to recognize that when you're talking about ending car dependency, this is an existential threat to either power, and they will treat it in kind.

There is convenience in the ineptitude of neoliberal politics in state-planning and infrastructure, which most people attribute as the cause of this development, but it's crucial to remember that suburban sprawl and car dependency were state projects by the US and Canada in very much they same way neoliberal privatization is.

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  • [–] 49 points 3 days ago* (9 children)

    America is just a collection of subscription fees you must pay in order to survive. You need a car, rent, groceries, and bills at the bare minimum so you must have a job or you will die in the street.

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  • [–] 24 points 3 days ago

    Yes, and it's important to identify why that happens and how it functions, not satisfy ourselves with the certainty that it is bad, or unjust, or unreasonable; which many of these posts end up doing.

    The US is the way it is because that is what settler-colonialism and capitalism require to continue. Even when there were periods of "reform," such as the labour and state policies of the welfare liberal era in the 1930s-40s (which is how suburbanism and car dependency came about), or the civil rights movements of the mid- to late-twentieth century (which is how neoliberalism and the liberal appropriation of social justice was achieved), victories in reform are inevitably eroded by these fundamental imperatives.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 days ago (4 children)

    It’s the same everywhere. Not just American thing.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 days ago (2 children)

    Though capitalism is pervasive globally, I don't think it's necessary to narrow our understanding of its specificities within the US metropole to be able to discuss the commonalities globally.

    Car dependency is certainly more prevalent within the US than it is the EU, but even it's presence in either takes on different forms and performs different functions. And then, the car dependency in the US is different from colonized spaces in Latin America, or between Latin American settler-colonial states like Brazil or Argentina.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 days ago (1 child)

    We have the same car dependency issues here in Australia. I tried to go without a car once, and then I realised it would take me 2 hours and 2 transfers to go to work instead of a 30 minute drive. And good luck going to any appointment; you end up taking a lot of taxis

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  • [–] 0 points 2 days ago

    yes, it happens in many places. Except, Australia has just under 30 million people in it, where the US has 350 million. Additionally, the US is where the car industry and car-centric city planning emerged, and it did so within the context of a culture with not only a settler-colonial incentive to dominate space, but also a significant population of other oppressed groups who posed a threat to white supremacy, like African Americans. Even though both the US and Australia engage in imperialism, the US has a much more expansive and pervasive imperial presence globally. Consequently, suburban sprawl was as much an element of white supremacy within the metropole as it was a military necessity once WWII concluded and the US state became anxious about decentralizing its manufacturing industries.

    So, even though car dependency exists in other settler-colonial states, like Australia or Canada, the context and conditions under which that car dependency is created and functions is substantially different.

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