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Root Causes

Some recent article had an American dentist complaining that their little Johnny had cavities, maybe from too much sugar, but that's not important because someone else had been under-fluoridating the town's water supply. So the only solution here is to fluoridate that water, because lord knows they will not brush and floss and are unlikely to change what they are being fed. Reduce the sugar in their diet? That's somewhat problematic on account of all the money that can be made selling sugary foods to sugar addicts. So more likely there will be kluges that hopefully keep the cavity and type 2 diabetes rates down to acceptable levels.

A related conversation involved a car repair job, apparently on the order of $6,000 dollars for a new transmission. Eventually the conversation got to costs and walkability, as $6,000 might keep me supplied with shoes and a backpack for something like 30 years, though that will depend on inflation, how fancy the shoes and backpacks are, how long they last, and other factors. Shoes in expensive American cities are expensive, though on the other hand someone bought a cheap pair of shoes in Pakistan that only lasted two weeks before the cardboard sole had been worn through to. Meanwhile outside some limited areas America is not walkable. Even within the walkable areas mobility can be difficult; for a work potluck a lady was like "why don't you go to the store in Ballard?" and I and another car-free co-worker were doing the same mental math: about 15 minutes to the bus stop, the 49 ain't anything but slow when it does show up, on top of that a hike down to the store, and, uh, not gonna happen. Root causes here vary; in modern-day America one is expected to drive, regardless the cost, but the co-worker did not on account of saving up for a move to Germany. Fixing the high costs of transportation seems unlikely given how much money that would wipe off the economy. More likely one will see non-ideal kluges such as tax breaks for fuel production, raiding the general fund for road repair, and so forth.