Chapter 1, Pages 4-8: proportional representation, regulatory capture, cronyism, cars and more
4. Less regulatory capture & cronyism.
European countries often have less regulatory capture & cronyism.
The Separation of Business and State by Ryan Dawson
5. Proportional representation.
I support proportional representation because it allows for more diverse ideas and viewpoints than non-proportional representation, and allows minorities more of a voice in the legislative branch instead of having absolute majority rule. It's also the reason why Europe has less regulatory capture than America, and is why European welfare states work better than America.
While the specific types of proportional representation I favor, being Schulze single transferable vote and Psi/Harmonic proportional representation are different from what is currently used in Europe (my favorites being Mixed Member Proportional representation, Dual Member Proportional Representation, and Single Transferable vote), I support proportional representation as an addition (but not a replacement) to single-winner local representation because it allows people to voice more issues, ideas and viewpoints than just two parties. I like having local representatives to give people living in sparsely populated areas a voice in government instead of having a few big cities run roughshod over everyone else, which, in extreme cases, may spark a civil war as rural people feel that they lack a voice in politics.
Comparison of electoral systems #Compliance of non-majoritarian party-agnostic multi-winner methods
Comparison of proportional non-majoritarian party-agnostic multi-winner methods:
If the party-agnostic forms of proportional representation have scaleability problems with large populations, such as in the case of India or China, and party-based proportional representation is required, then I would use open party-list proportional representation with the modified d'Hondt method that favors smaller parties.
I hate how much (but fortunately, not all) of the Anglophone world is missing out on proportional representation.
I also support score voting for single seat elections, though I'd also be happy with approval voting, which is a simpler system.
6. Europeans have easier access to diesel and other fuel-efficient cars than Americans and Canadians.
A little bit of this is due to the market, but it's more like regulatory capture. Unlike, say, Singapore, in which car makes and models are already street legal in Japan, the European Union, or North America can be legally imported and owned, by contrast, in the U.S.A. (and Canada, which uses U.S. regulations), car makes and models that are already street legal in Japan or the European Union have to conform to a different fuel economy, crash-test (such as small overlap), and especially, pollution control standards to be street legal on government roads in the United States and Canada.
7. France gets a higher percentage of its electricity from nuclear power than America, and many European countries are better with waste-to-energy incinerators than the U.S.A..
8. By & large less car dependency.
However, “Then there’s the issue of the privileged ivory-tower view. The dark secret is that most places in Europe don’t have any kind of public transportation. We’re talking about rural & remote areas outside of the big cities that they generally portray in movies. The European city that has excellent transit coverage & around-the-clock service is the exception, rather than the norm.“ - ✔July 2022 AMA - Answers by Shane Killian.
I know that there is going to be a conservative that will complain that I am making my country look bad in front of the world. That is not my intention. Every country has its flaws. Almost no country in the world lacks a dark side. Anyone can do what I did to almost any country in the world.
If you had a cancer cell growing in your body, would you rather have your doctor tell you that you have a cancer cell in your body, or tell you that you are okay when you are not okay? It sometimes takes bad news to know that you have a problem and to get said problem fixed.
One of the biggest problem I have with a significant portion of conservatives is that they are so reluctant to lose face and admit that their culture can be wrong on things. They are stuck on cultural dogmas, and are too emotionally invested in their nation and culture to admit that some cultures do some things better. They lack humility. It is as if admitting that someone else does something better is akin to pulling teeth. This probably comes from the more particularist and tribal psychology of conservatives, in contrast to leftists, who tend to be more cosmopolitan and universalist.
Though we could see a change with younger generations who grew up with the internet and older generations dying off, as that things like gay marriage and marrijuana prohibition are less of an issue for the right than they used to be.