HOA’s are prominent in the US because they and the restrictive covenants imposing them were a way to replace de jure public racial discrimination and segregation with technically-private-but-legally-durable racial and cultural discrimination. The explicit racial aspect has since been made legally unavailable, but they remain a tool to enforce outward cultural conformity, which has a strong racial valence.
Or they provide for maintenance of the common areas (mowing, plowing) and maybe some minor amenities. Or the houses are basically built into a country club.
I find that the places where there are insane HOAs are just as insane in the houses that aren't under HOAs.
> Or they provide for maintenance of the common areas
HOAs do that, yes, but that's not why they are so pervasive in the US, even in non-condominium style developments, and intrusive in their government of what goes on in non-common areas.
At least your bank, school, apartment, and airline aren't locking core services behind carrying a fucking PlayStation around with you.
Consoles feel different because they're one-purpose machines. Sure, it's irritating if they hardcore a maximum fps or what have you, but it feels less offensive for them to be locked down.
It's kind of like the difference of Disneyland having weird, restrictive, draconian rules versus just a public park. Which is also one of two brands of public parks in your city. That you also have to use to deposit checks.
I still have two Drobo 5N2 NAS boxes going strong. One is the backup for the other. I really wish someone would take up the Drobo-like simplicity and run with it.
I understand that, but the people literally voted for someone who promised to get rid of checks and balances, and rule as a dictator. Isn't that what they wanted?
Republicans and independents indicated in polls that they did not take what Trump said during the 2024 campaign literally. Voters didn’t give him a mandate, they thought they were voting for a troll.
An oversimplification is that people voted against the status quo, not necessarily "for" Trump. Since the US only has a two-party system, the actual policies were irrelevant.
> Remarkably, the longest fence in the world was built and is maintained for a single purpose: to protect Australia’s pastoral heartlands from the depredations of a canine.
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