• Ohmmy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 days ago

      That’s not exactly true. While yes, the car isn’t required but there are zoning restrictions on density of housing and mixed use spaces making the car needed to accommodate.

    • SwingingTheLamp
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      5 days ago

      I’m going to stipulate here that you don’t get to have it both ways, to say that a car is both essential to American life, but not required by law. See, it’s laws that shape the human environment to make one essential: Parking minimums, building codes, zoning, lending standards, driver’s licenses as default photo ID, and so on.

      If it’s laws that make cars required to live, then they’re de facto required by law.

      • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        Okay, but they aren’t literally required by law. You’re just making a case for them being a necessity not everyone truly wants.

        Plenty of people don’t own vehicles, and they are not getting in trouble with our legal system for simply making that choice.

        • SwingingTheLamp
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          4 days ago

          Yes, but it’s a hair-splitting distinction that it’s not a law is not an individual mandate that each citizen own one. There are plenty of other laws that do literally require cars. For that matter, it’s required by law that we have Social Security Numbers, and that’s just a side note in a discussion about their role in our society.