The US can provide for far more than its total electricity usage, with just the land area we currently use to grow corn for ethanol. You can put solar panels on parking lots, over roads, on train tracks, on rooftops, etc. You can even use the same land for both solar panels and growing certain crops. It’s called agrivoltaics. And that’s before you even get into panels in deserts, floating on water, etc.

There simply isn’t a shortage of land for solar. Unless you’re talking about tiny city-states, there just is no shortage of land needed for electric purposes. Land usage just isn’t a significant factor. Yes, land footprint is an advantage nuclear has, but it’s an advantage that really doesn’t matter much in the real world.

We’re honestly almost past that at this point. Solar is devouring the world. Total global electricity production capacity is about 10 TW. China is currently producing 1 TW of panels annually. And the panels are still getting better and the prices are still dropping. We will quickly reach the point where the vast majority of global electricity production is solar, and everything else is a rounding error.

There just isn’t going to be any reason to build fusion plants. Maybe in the distant future colonies in the outer solar system and beyond will use them. But for anything inward of Mars, solar is the way to go. Solar+batteries is already, in 2026, the cheapest form of baseload power available. Material limitations are not a problem with modern battery chemistries. Daily swings in power demand will be solved by batteries. And we simply won’t have to worry about seasonal power swings. We’ll build enough solar panels to meet all our winter needs. We’ll build enough to power our cities during the coldest, cloudiest months. And then the rest of they year we’ll have super-abundant dirt cheap power.

The future is one of vast energy abundance. We’re going to find all sorts of ways to use energy that we’ve never even dreamed of before - mostly to take advantage of the abundance of dirt cheap energy we’ll have during all but the coldest months.

The days the steam engine are numbered. With the exception of remote polar outposts, everything’s going solar. It’s simply the cheapest most abundant form of energy we’ve ever discovered. Nothing can match it.

Let the world know that in my great humility, I’m also agreeing to decline any nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.

You know, that’s probably how I’m going to end up going out…banished by hot air balloon.

And you know what? I’m think I’m OK with this. What a whimsical way to be executed.

Don’t watch the first few episodes of The Walking Dead while actually in the hospital under heavy opioid medication. That’s how you end up with extremely terrifying and vivid dreams of a zombie apocalypse in the very hospital you’re currently in! Ask me how I know!

Yes. Except before homelessness, the wealthy consume drugs at far higher rates than poor people. A wealthy person has a drug habit and can just ride through it without losing housing. If you take a homeless drug addict and give them a billion dollars, they would just be another billionaire with a ketamine habit. This is why it’s absurd and abusive to demand people get clean before you provide them housing.

Wealthy people use drugs at far higher rates than poor people. Drugs are expensive after all. The difference is that when you’re poor, drug use makes you homeless.

Also, I sure as hell would want to be high 24/7 if I had to sleep on the sidewalk.

Check your browser extensions. 🤣

You got the order backwards. Homelessness creates drug addiction, not the other way around.

Exactly. Start by not making homeless people jump through any moral more moralistic hoops than you ask home owners to jump through.

Your speculation doesn’t trump the massive real-world success and scientific evidence behind a housing-first approach.

You know the difference between a homeless person with mental health issues and a housed person with mental health issues? The latter has housing.

The other kind of divorce is no-fault divorce. You don’t have to give a reason there, you silly goose!

deleted by creator

One further benefit is that it allows you to optimize what little toilet paper you do buy towards strength. Normally there’s a tradeoff. Softer and less abrasive toilet paper is nicer on the bum, but it comes apart more easily. It can leave bits of toilet paper dust around and even tear at the most inopportune time. But if you’re only using a little to dry off, you can buy the strongest stuff you can find, regardless of how harsh it might be to use as regular dry wiping paper. Who cares if it feels like sandpaper if you’re just using it to pat yourself dry?

Life as a homeless person can be better than life in a war torn country.

Immigrants however are extremely unlikely to be homeless. People who take the initiative to flee across a continent tend to be self-starters and highly motivated. There’s a reason immigrants start businesses at far higher rates than native born citizens. By accepting immigrants, you are selecting for a population of the most motivated and driven people in the regions you’re drawing from.

Libertarian ah take

So? This is how we regulated immigration for the vast, vast majority of the history of human civilization. People move to areas with more opportunities. If too many people move to those areas, the opportunities available to immigrants decrease, and the flow of people slows. It’s a self-regulating system. It only ever becomes a thing to worry about if you’re concerned about the skin color of your neighbors.

I said most people. I’m talking people who retire with levels of wealth achievable through ordinary wage and salary work. People retiring with portfolios in the $1-5 million range. And yes, the vast vast majority of these folks die with more money than they start retirement with.

You’re taking things way too literally. The US had open borders for most of its history, and it didn’t get invaded or fall to pieces. When people say “open boarder” they mean no restrictions on immigration other than criminal records.

Your speculation on vast camps is hogwash. Immigrants maintain much lower unemployment levels than native-born citizens. And you can have all your social welfare benefits tied to citizenship. These are problems the EU solved a long time ago. Look more into history and real world examples, less vague speculation.

And of course, a lot of Canadians mostly look and sound like white Americans, so we don’t think twice about them, but Mexicans look and sound different, so it’s easy to rile people up about the “invading foreign culture” that will “destroy America.”

The echo of America’s original sin still dwells in the heart of every American. Deep down, there’s some primal fear that what we did to others will be done to us.

We should have open borders. The only thing needed to get in should be a background check. But anyone who hasn’t committed violent crimes should be able to live and work in the country.

No. I’m not worried about being swamped by a flood of people from poorer countries. Why? Because no one wants to leave their family and entire home behind just to move to a wealthy country to live on the street as a homeless person. We will only ever attract as many immigrants as there are jobs to support them.

Of course, I would want reciprocity. I would support signing mutual open border agreements with poorer countries. They can send workers in need of work here. We can send retirees in need of low cost of living places there. The flow in both directions is kept in check by market forces, the same way we regulate the production of every good and service in our economies.

AND HEAT PUMPS!!!