ETA relevant links: https://youtube.com/@NotJustBikes https://letgrow.org/
ETA again: I glibly mentioned "being killed by a driver" but of course navigating the typical US built environment if you're under 16 or otherwise unable to drive is a miserable experience in a number of ways even if you survive it. Highways make pedestrian paths unnecessarily roundabout. Parking lots make everything further from everything else. Crossing major roads requires getting drivers to notice and stop for you (harder when you're short!), or waiting through interminable signal cycles, etc.
https://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/search/label/what%20wo...
Even if they spend their entire income on taxable goods and services — which is very unlikely, as rent/mortgage doesn't have VAT — that would mean 21% of the remaining amount were taxed, so 55-50%.
https://www.oecd.org/tax/tax-policy/taxing-wages-netherlands...
https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-do-us-taxe...
https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/summary-latest-fe...
> The estimated total pay for a Software Engineer is $140,779 per year in the United States area, with an average salary of $118,761 per year. These numbers represent the median, which is the midpoint of the ranges from our proprietary Total Pay Estimate model and based on salaries collected from our users. The estimated additional pay is $22,017 per year. Additional pay could include cash bonus, commission, tips, and profit sharing. The "Most Likely Range" represents values that exist within the 25th and 75th percentile of all pay data available for this role
[1]: https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trov...
I'm reminded of how Georgia will pay foster parents of homeless kids more than it'd cost to simply put a roof over those kids' families heads. https://www.propublica.org/article/georgia-housing-assistanc...
[1] https://www.google.co.nz/maps/@33.8644514,-84.5949946,3a,75y...
[2] https://www.google.co.nz/maps/@-41.2953813,174.7673872,3a,75...
edit: Might add that close to those shops in [2] there is a large botanic garden with play area and stream, one small and one very large reserve with native bush and an abundance of mountain bike tracks, a playing field, the central city area with cafes, many theatres, galleries, a library, and all sorts of other things that a child can make use of without supervision. All of this is within 5 minutes walk of those shops. Within 10 minutes walk there is the waterfront and a very safe swimming beach.
That's wonderful you live in place where children are can roam freely without being injured or killed by drivers. But this is a real threat in most of the US. Being killed in a motor vehicle crash is the second highest cause of death among children and adolescents. (It was the highest until 2020 when firearm-related injuries overtook them.[1])
For every 100,000 people the Netherlands has 3.8 annual traffic deaths, the US has 12.9, and Libera (the worst I could find[2]) has 35.9. That means when it comes to traffic deaths the US is 3.4x more deadly than the Netherlands and Liberia is 2.8x more deadly than the US.
I bike with my kids and let them walk to school and we talk about how to manage these risks. But being near roads in the US is less safe than most other developed countries by a statistically significant margin.
[1] https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2201761
[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...
The number of children who are killed by cars as pedestrians or bicyclists is much lower. In 2021 for example it was 176 pedestrian children and 38 bicyclist children [1].
[1] https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/...
I’m not arguing that there are places that are pedestrian unfriendly in the US or even that there are more places per capita like that in the US.
I’m just saying it would be weird for homes and schools to be placed in those locales, and even weirder for governmental officials to take action against kids walking in appropriate locales.
Here is the shopping district nearest me: https://maps.app.goo.gl/SUZCyUHuGbCAwcYT7?g_st=ic
And here is a place that is inappropriate for pedestrians near you https://maps.app.goo.gl/aLdDyWdbFq6vUG6X9?g_st=ic
Within 5 minutes of my area are at least 5 parks/play lots, a beach and a library.
Theaters, cafes and galleries are on that street.
Within 1 mile of that location is a 550 acre public park with all manner of facilities and less than 2 miles away is a 370 acre park.
Thats not mentioning the museums and university facilities near here.
None of that is to flex it’s just to say a random sampling is not an appropriate retort. The US can obviously be less car centric but to imply that it’s impossible or strange for kids to be outside on there own in the US is a wild assertion and anyone making it needs to provide extraordinary proof.
Source showing I'm wrong and giving more context: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-09/how-long-is-too-long-...
I can say though that the few times I've ridden on the road with my children were the most stressful of my life, I have never done it since, and it made me completely understand why I no longer see any other children or parents doing it.
[1] https://www.vox.com/23784549/pedestrian-deaths-traffic-safet...