mikeyouse

They're backed by some tech billionaires;

Tech Billionaires Plan Audacious Mission to Mine Asteroids

Students and the 'working poor' who can't get a day off to stand in line for 6 hours and vote.

As a casual observer of congress who hasn't watched Schoolhouse Rock in a long time, what is the next step? Where does the bill go from here? How can the average person help?

It's much more expensive in Detroit than in many places -- You need to amortize all of the costs to maintain the system over the bills of the users -- which is problematic when you have a huge system that loses nearly 2/3^rd of its users in the past few decades. Especially when many of the remaining people are poor and can't afford to pay their bills.

In Grand Rapids, ~100 miles away from Detroit, water & sewer cost about $4.25 / 1,000 gallons and costs the average household ~$260/year.

(Side note, this issue indirectly led to the Flint water debacle after Flint reneged on their promise to keep using Detroit water, which caused Detroit to cut them off, necessitating Flint's use of the Flint River water since their alternative plant / pipeline wasn't completed yet)

https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/sites/default/files/report_state_of_public_water.pdf

Have you read Sapiens or Homo Deus by Harari? They seem to chase down a similar thread about human history to René Girard -- and both seem to influence a lot of the 'thinkers' in Silicon Valley. Any thoughts on the role of myth and conflict in human history and how much we should take them into account when trying to escape stagnation?