@Elizafox
Flash storage is more expensive than ever and only improving in quality because it supports the AI bubble. When the bubble pops, the storage will briefly become near-worthless and manufacturers will stop making it, which will only make the crisis worse in the long run.

I straight-up do not believe you about Amtrak. You're telling me more people are riding it now than in any of its first 10 years? And the per-capita statistics have got to be very different.

The unions we have are useless. Everyone in my store is unhappy with their job, the company keeps cutting our hours and taking it as a sign to keep doing it when it doesn't immediately kill the store. Yet nobody seriously believes we have the power to stop or reverse it.

Murder rates may be falling but have you considered that people being murdered by stochastic terrorism are generally not being counted? We're caught in the middle of several genocides brought on by public figures who affect societal behaviors in such a way that it makes their targets suicidal. Not to mention, victims of bombings during wars (and "illegal military operations") are also counted separately. The crime isn't going away, it's just centralizing to those with power.

We may have to create entirely new infrastructure to escape the corporate internet, access to it today is much less useful than it was 10-15 years ago thanks to corporate meddling like ads, generated content (AI), social media algorithms (AI), and age verification (AI). So long, and thanks for all the technological progress!