Browsing PBH By Articles

Why Public Transit Is Always Underfunded

The Article: Public Transit Is Underfunded Because the Wealthy Don’t Rely on It by Keith Barry in Wired.

The Text: Another report has come out in support of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), an innovative way to provide public transit at a low cost with dedicated bus lanes, stops, and schedules.

The study (PDF), from pro-transit group Embarq, found that BRT drastically reduced commute times, improved air quality, and cut road fatalities in congested cities like Bogota, Istanbul, Johannesburg, and Mexico City. And we already know that BRT is one of the most cost-effective public transit investments a municipality can make.

The catch? In most cities examined in the report, those benefits only extend to low- and middle-class residents. (In Johannesburg, the poorest residents did not use BRT).

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What’s The Point Of Getting Married?

The Article: We need to have a frank discussion about marriage by Tauriq Moosa in The Guardian.

The Text: Marriage, as most know it in western countries, is regarded as the end goal of a relationship between (usually) a man and woman, and it normally has some sort of religious component. Marriage is regarded as “sacred”. Weddings are planned that few really want to attend; pointless dresses are worn never to be seen again; awkward family photos are taken.

Being married supposedly conveys respectability. We regard it as “settling down”, indicative of stability. For some reason we even congratulate people who are already in a relationship for, basically, signing papers (or just changing Facebook statuses) and calling it an engagement. We spend unnecessarily large amounts on engagement and wedding rings. But if you have a male friend who’s also celebrating his bachelor’s party and you want to surprise him, check out Escorts in Parsippany New Jersey.

Yet, with low marriage rates (the US marriage rate is the lowest it’s been in a century) and high divorce rates, more single (by choice) parents (not to mention gay marriage), increasing numbers of people abandoning religious traditions as a whole, and people living happier lives because they only even consider marriage later, we should thoroughly reassess the importance of marriage.

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It Is Immoral To Cage Humans For Smoking Weed

The Article: It Is Immoral to Cage Humans for Smoking Marijuana by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.

The Text: Under the law in 48 states, here’s what can happen when an adult is thought to possess marijuana: Men with guns can go to his home, kick down his door, force him to lay face down on the floor, restrain him with handcuffs, drive him to a police station, and lock him in a cage. If he is then convicted of possessing marijuana, a judge can order that he be locked in a different cage, perhaps for years.

There are times when locking human beings in cages is morally defensible. If, for example, a person commits murder, rape, or assault, transgressing against the rights of others, then forcibly removing him from society is the most just course of action. In contrast, it is immoral to lock people in cages for possessing or ingesting a plant that is smoked by millions every year with no significant harm done, especially when the vast majority of any harm actually done is borne by the smoker.

That there are racial disparities in who is sent to prison on marijuana charges is an added injustice that deserves attention. But if blacks and whites were sent to prison on marijuana charges in equal proportion, jail for marijuana would still be immoral.

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Isaac Asimov’s Eerily Accurate Predictions For 2014

The Article: Isaac Asimov’s Predictions for 2014 Were Eerily Prescient. Except for the Internet. by Jerry A. Coyne in The New Republic.

The Text: Roughly 50 years ago, on August 16, 1964, science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov predicted in The New York Times what the world would be like fifty years hence. (He was inspired by the World’s Fair of 1964, to which my sister and I were taken by our parents.) It’s a longish piece, and concentrates on the problem of increasing population as well as on the ability of technology to deal with that pressure and to improve our lives.

I’ll highlight just three of his predictions, one mostly right, one partly right, and one wrong.

This is what he got mostly right:

In 2014, there is every likelihood that the world population will be 6,500,000,000 and the population of the United States will be 350,000,000. Boston-to-Washington, the most crowded area of its size on the earth, will have become a single city with a population of over 40,000,000.

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9 Huge Government Conspiracies That Actually Happened

The Article: 9 Huge Government Conspiracies That Actually Happened by Christina Sterbenz in Business Insider.

The Text: We all know the conspiracy theories — the government’s plan for 911, the second gunman who shot JFK, the evolution of the elite from a race of blood-drinking, shape-shifting lizards.

But the people who spread these ideas usually can’t prove them.

As the years pass, however, secrets surface. Government documents become declassified. We now have evidence of certain elaborate government schemes right here in the U.S. of A.

1. The U.S. Department of the Treasury poisoned alcohol during Prohibition — and people died.

The 18th Amendment, which took effect in January 1920, banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol — but not consumption. Despite the government’s efforts, alcoholism actually skyrocketed during the era.

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