• ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    6 days ago

    The silver lining of autocracy.

    Why would a democratically elected leader plan for the long term if their sucessors, possibly from an opposition party, can claim credit for it.

    In a dictatorship, they can plan for the long term, since they know they will be in power.

    Also, the hyper-individualism in western countries doesn’t make “working together” as a country easier. Just look at the anti-maskers and anti-vax people lol

    And also, the big population in China would never allow for a “car culture” in the firsr place, since there just isn’t room for that many cars, public transit is a must for a densely populated country.

    • Lemminary@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      the hyper-individualism in western countries doesn’t make “working together” as a country easier

      I’d be careful with overgeneralizing that. Even though Latin American cultures also push for individualism to some extent, we do have tight-nit communities regardless because of the unified cultures that we have.

    • Pregnenolone@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      And also, the big population in China would never allow for a “car culture” in the firsr place, since there just isn’t room for that many cars, public transit is a must for a densely populated country.

      I’ve been to China plenty of times, I promise the car culture is alive and well.

      • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        6 days ago

        Eh, parking costs is a huge problem.

        Its probably the reason why my parents never got a car when they were in China.

        Its the same in NYC tbh. I mean, brooklyn, maybe, but if you wanna go to Chinatown in Manhattan, yea… good luck finding parking. Its not even that “Public Transit is good” (NYC subway is filthy compared to China’s subway, and also there’s no safety barriers in NYC, feels sketchy to wait for a train/subway because you get the feeling like some racist is about to push you 😕), since missing a scheduled subway/bus is gonna make you like 30 minutes late. Its just that having a car is so inconvienient in a crowded city, so much so that even the terrible public transit system is better than having a car.

        Now in philly, there is street parking, and malls with parking lots… so… yea we got 2 cars in the family… 🤷‍♂️

    • vga@sopuli.xyz
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      5 days ago

      And also, the big population in China would never allow for a “car culture” in the firsr place, since there just isn’t room for that many cars, public transit is a must for a densely populated country.

      I’ve been to China as part of a company visit. They took us everywhere by car. Even what I would consider walking distance.

      I did not see mass transit once.

      • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5 days ago

        That’s because you were visiting. When I was in China (as a citizen), I always had to take public transit if I want to go anywhere. My mom had to take public transit to work. Parking costs wete high, because there’s no street parking like in the US. (This was in Guangzhou btw) Now in the US, they just drive, because free street-parking is everywhere.

        As a visitor, you’d of couse visit places by car.

        part of a company visit.

        Well that’s why… they don’t want ya’ll getting lost and your group split up.

        I did not see mass transit once.

        Lol where did you go? Some rural area?

          • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            5 days ago

            Okay, so I’ve never been to Shenzhen (or at least I don’t remember ever going there), but I just looked it up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhen_Metro

            If you went there like… before 2010 or something, pehaps you wouldn’t see much of that, because they were kinda still building it.

            The subways are all underground, so you probably didn’t notice them unless you went looking for them, it’s not like the US where some parts of the subway are above-ground, and others are underground. I have no idea how you didn’t see any of the busses tho… perhaps you didn’t pay attention to your surroundings… 😅

            TLDR: Public transit exists, you either went there like a long time ago before they got built, or just didn’t pay enough attention.

            • vga@sopuli.xyz
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              5 days ago

              Yeah, I don’t doubt it exists and probably is well used by the people living there. Just wanted to address the part of the comment saying “China would never allow for a “car culture” in the firsr place” because there sure was a car culture. It felt like an American city.

              I’m also aware that Shenzen is different from the rest of China, and, well, that the rest of China is different from the other rest of China.