• harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    69
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    15 天前

    It was for a while. Then they stopped taxing the wealthy and opened loophole after loophole for corporations.

    On a good day, the US is a developed country in decline.

      • huppakee@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        14 天前

        In those certain portions people still need to be rich enough to be able to access healthcare and education.

  • OldCrow@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    39
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    14 天前

    “Are we sure America is a developed nation?” Well, if people die because they can’t afford health care, then NO

        • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          40
          ·
          14 天前

          I’m sure the dude on day 11 without power gives a shit. I get why you’re not supposed to, but anyone who would try to prosecute this is a moron

            • Peppycito@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              8
              ·
              14 天前

              I’m actually an upholsterer and I’m obligated by law to put those tags on anything I make. I do not have any of those tags and have never done. I worked at a place that got inspected 3 times in the 20 years I worked there to make sure we were putting those tags on things. We had a box of tags and I blew the dust off them every time they showed up.

              I just looked at the law and in Ontario at least, it hasn’t been a thing since 2001 lol. At the place I used to work we reupholstered rollercoasters (it had its ups and downs) and we were regulated by the TSSA, apparently, which was different from the Stuffed Articles Act which is old news.

              That was fun, I learned things!

  • taiyang@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    18
    ·
    14 天前

    Actually… in their defense, some towns were completely wiped out by floods, it’s quite a massive “once in a lifetime” storms we’ve been getting thanks to climate change. I’ve a friend in Indiana that works for insurance as a mold specialist, he was out quite a bit last week and had to go to sites in a boat.

    That said, you want a real target to shit on? He told me the company isn’t honoring almost any claims since most aren’t sold on real flood insurance (it’s not a place known to flooding). None the less, they’re soulless ghouls.

    Edit: oh also, this probably goes without saying but the feds are barely doing shit about it.

  • black0ut@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    14 天前

    Nope. America has multiple nations, some of them developed, like Canada or Mexico, and some of them undeveloped, like the US.

  • k0e3@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    14 天前

    Infairness, natural disasters will fuck up any developed nation, but you’ll see huge differences in the way their peoples and governments respond.

    But it certainly brings out the worst in people. For example, in Japan, I think our government responds fairly well to natural disasters and our infrastructure has been built a little better to withstand them. But social media is rife with fake news about foreigners looting in the aftermath.

    • supersquirrel@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      14 天前

      One of the issues with living in a deeply racist society such as the US or Japan is that when a crisis happens and people in that society see images of minorities or foreigners suffering they immediately codify that as a violent threat.

      A bunch of black people after Hurricane Katrina getting food from a store was immediately codified as “looting” even though we are talking about a life or death situation where of course people should take the food and figure it out later…

      This is a massive liability as any severe injury to society from a disaster must be carefully mediated in the imagery diseminated about it or the society will become violently obsessed with hurting the people who are already suffering… which is the precise opposite of resilience.

      What is occurring in Indiana and elsewhere now is a new Civil War which is most of the time not fought with guns but with disaster aid denied for political reasons or just from pure uncaring incompetence.

      • droans@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        14 天前

        Well, our governor called for SCOTUS to overturn Loving v Virginia, so old-school racism is still a valid reason.

    • Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      14 天前

      Within less than 2 years my town in GA was hit with 2 tornados and a hurricane. Parts of infrastructure were completely destroyed and power crews from states away came to assist. Even with that many people working nearly around the clock, I personally was still without power for for 5-7 days at a time.

  • Wxfisch@piefed.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    15 天前

    Similar happened around Pittsburgh PA about a year ago. Storms came through and took out tons of power lines leaving people without power for well over a week. The “local” utility was impacted way more than surrounding utility providers due to years of underinvestment in infrastructure maintenance despite regularly raising rates. Turns out that’s what happens when it’s majority owned by overseas sovereign wealth funds (in this case mostly Singapore). When line must go up, maintenance becomes just a cost to be deferred. Good news is there was a ton of blowback and things have gotten better. The state PUC opened an investigation and have prohibited rate increase requests for multiple years at this point. We have had more short flickers but a lot less actual outages so maybe they really have learned a lesson? (Not holding my breath on that one)

    • saltesc@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      14 天前

      “We strongly disagree with the characterization of Nipsco’s vegetation management practices,” the company said. “Nipsco’s vegetation management spend has more than doubled since 2016, demonstrating our commitment and focus on maintaining a safe and reliable electric system”.

      And yet here we are, Nipsco. Maybe they doubled the spend to $8.

      I used to live in a remote part of Australia and the longest we went was 8 days because we were cut of fby flooding, apart from helicopter. Repairs were under way fast when the water receeded. But apart from that, there’s huge investment in maintenance and repair because of laws enforcing it. Companies will get fined big time if they slip below the government’s requirements to operate as a utility provider.

  • Mulligrubs@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    14 天前

    I’m old and have been through a lot of storms, including hurricanes, tornadoes, and even earthquakes. Power was always restored within a day. Five decades of storms, power always restored quickly.

    A few years ago, where I live there was a minor storm. Some wind gusts, nothing hurricane level, heavy rain… power was out for us for five days. This wasn’t a storm of significance, nobody would take time off work for it. Tens of thousands of people without power.

    There is something fundamentally wrong with US government today. I am in a state with Democratic control for decades, with some of the highest taxes in the nation.

    • oatscoop@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      13 天前

      My city’s “Democratic” city council refused to even vote for a moratorium on building AI datacenters in the city. Motion was made by one council member, didn’t even get a second.

  • Hanrahan@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    14 天前

    no, he’s using a petrol generator

    the occasional time we lose power during storms here in Australia, day or two at most fir me, I plug into my EV using V2L. Runs the refrigeration, Internet, couple lights, USB charging etc

  • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    14 天前

    In the past, crews from Canada would go down to the US and help restore power when there’s disasters. I wonder if that still happens?

  • gedfromgont@piefed.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    14 天前

    Fuck, 11 days is rough. Worst I ever had was 1 and a half day like 2 years ago and it showed me how difficult this is. Cannot imagine a whole week of that, let alone 11 days, probably still counting.

  • kibblebits@quokk.au
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    15 天前

    Hey guys. You can stop it. But it’s not gonna be by asking nicely. (Or asking in a stern voice either)

    • Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      14 天前

      Jim Halpert: [after he’s been given a demerit] Like, what does a demerit mean?

      Dwight Schrute: Let’s put it this way. You do not want to receive three of those.

      Jim Halpert: Lay it on me.

      Dwight Schrute: Three demerits, and you’ll receive a citation.

      Jim Halpert: Now, that sounds serious.

      Dwight Schrute: Oh, it is serious. Five citations, and you’re looking at a violation. Four of those, and you’ll receive a verbal warning. Keep it up, and you’re looking at a written warning. Two of those, that will land you in a world of hurt, in the form of a disciplinary review, written up by me, and placed on the desk of my immediate superior.

      Jim Halpert: Which would be me.

      Dwight Schrute: That is correct.

      Jim Halpert: Okay. I want a copy on my desk by the end of the day or you will receive a full dis-adulation.

      Dwight Schrute: What’s a dis… What’s that?

      Jim Halpert: Oh, you don’t want to know.

  • Jessica@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    14 天前

    I remember an ice storm from when I was a kid, maybe 30 years ago, that left us without power for what might have been 3-7 days. We were lucky in that my stepfather had the money to get a generator, so we could keep the food cold, and plug in heaters and such. I don’t remember much of it, just things like showering by candle light and such. We lived in a decently sized city, where this sort of extended outage was unheard of.

    In modern day, I’ve heard from people that live in the sticks, losing power for 1-2 weeks after bad summer storms. For them they just accept it.

  • oortjunk@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    14 天前

    Pretty soon we’ll slap an export tariff on O&G; the Americunts can then really own the “shithole country aura” they keep trying to export to us up here.