Comment by ragingrobot | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ragingrobot | Hacker News Reader

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Without getting into the whole vaccine thing...

People need to start protesting with their wallets. People need to talk less and act more.

I work in NYC, in an "essential" service. In the beginning myself and other workers were threatened with discipline if we did not show up for work. We were told to go straight home, and stay inside, and do as little as necessary otherwise.

Now, this is easy for me, as I am single with no family, but I continue that policy to this day. I buy the essentials and no more.

You want to threaten me? If I don't do this, I can't travel? Fine, I'll keep my money. I can't go to a restaurant? Fine, I'll keep my money, and cook myself. I can't go to the beach? Well fine, I'll keep my money. I'll find something else to do (some of the parks are empty this time of year as everyone's at the beach!). Can't hurt me by telling me I can't spend.

I do the same when gas prices jump. I travel less. Not because I'm hurt more financially, but as a middle finger to the corporations behind the price increase.

Yeah, it doesn't make a dent in the grand scheme, but at least I don't feel the fool.

Honestly with all of this spending less and the way even essentials are jumping in cost, I haven't been able to save much more, and that's a shame.

There are so many ways Americans could make this work, to send a message, if they didn't spend as the corporate overloads told them they have to do.

As a former New Yorker... people should vote with their wallets and their feet.

New York has become a pretty miserable place to live. And for the privilege of living in a miserable place you pay an exorbitant amount.

One idea i've been musing for a while is that much American grief (high prices, archaic governments etc) seems to stem from a lack of new cities. Say austin is the new hotness, settled in 1800s. What about building a 2000s friendly city in the middle of nowhere and not limiting ourselves to the decisions made in 1800s like where's the water and walking/horse is the only mode of transport?

Pretty much any suburb around Austin meets that description.

I wouldn't differentiate those suburbs as anything of interest, their existence serves primarily to prop up the center.

what about building new centers?

I think that exorbitant cost of living is a large part of what makes it miserable. That and overcrowding.

You can get around town really without the cost of a car. For a little time and $3 you can go damned near anywhere in the city (and let's admit: with traffic and the wrong time of day, the subway can come in at a shorter ride than a taxi). How many places in the US can you do that?

Remote working may not make that such a big deal, but then you add entertainment and other activities. Fix the two major issues and maybe a good City government, and it could be far from miserable.

They are. Same in SF.

See also: Miami, Austin, Seattle housing prices.

Bless you! I have reached the same conclusion. If the economy is all that matters then only an economical protest will do.

Any restriction that prevents me from spending I will gladly follow.

Since NYC was the epicenter of early Covid cases, it means a sizable subset of the population, especially essential workers, were already infected and recovered. These workers, who bore the risk of serving those sequestered at home, are now to be punished for their service? https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/558757-the-ill-advise...

> During the pandemic, the professional laptop class protected themselves by working from home while exposing the working class that brought them food and other goods. It is now the height of hypocrisy to recognize immunity from vaccinations but not immunity from those exposed while serving the laptop class.

https://brownstone.org/articles/forced-medicine-the-new-fron...

> Consider this from the Wall Street Journal. “Children under the age of 12, who cannot be vaccinated according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, would likely not be excluded from the program’s outlined indoor activities ... So Broadway shows of children’s plays are permanently banned? Families cannot eat in restaurants? Kids under 12 cannot go to indoor events at all? Is this serious? Media questioned New York officials about all of this, and it truly appeared as if the geniuses running the city had completely forgotten to think about children at all. The question alone seemed to take them by surprise. If they exempt them, there is already a problem. Why include a 12-year-old but exclude an unvaccinated 13-year old?

> Regardless, this is an appalling and unthinkable amount of compulsion to impose for the sake of a vaccine that the willing have long ago accepted and about which the remainders have either grave doubts or hard-core opposition. People figure that it will be challenged in court but that takes time and money, and it is not at all clear how courts will respond. In the end, though lawsuits are fabulous and there should be many more, I don’t see how they stop this tyranny. I’m not sure what precisely does but I know this much: a people and culture that acquiesces to this level of imposition is not well suited for the preservation of liberty or civilization in general. This really does feel like a new chapter in the history of American rights violations.

There are some advocating to expand the scope of the No Fly list, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/unvaccinated-people-belong...

It's not just you. I stopped using amazon and other big corps completely when they locked us down.

Yeah I've decided to boycott Amazon too.

I had the opposite reaction, I used amazon MORE because I didn't want to wear masks everywhere.

I am also voting with my wallet. Despite being vaccinated, I am watching the infection dynamcs closely when considering indoor activites, especially where I can't wear a mask.

Same here. I won't spend money anywhere where it seems likely that I'll have to encounter unvaccinated people, especially without masks. They can infect each other if they want, but leave me out.

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