"people, universally, want the best product available"
Maybe I'm not a person, but I almost always pick one of the cheaper if not cheapest option. Rarely, if ever, do I care enough to get the best of anything...
No, this guy (the writer of the article) has no idea what he’s talking about. I say this as someone isn’t even on the left.
He sets a false dichotomy to protect himself from criticism. Zoning/building codes being too strict and monopolies existing in that market aren’t incompatible.
It’s worth noting that there’s a lot of money behind this abundance movement or whatever, so that’s something to take into account when reading this stuff.
You should read a bit more beyond Wikipedia. It’s a far, far more complicated and interesting story than you’re portraying it to be.
The Catholic Church actually initially funded Copernicus and was interested in his findings, but this was the reformation and counter-reformation, so that context is extremely important as to why their stance changed.
What they did to Giordano Bruno, on the other hand, is a massive stain on the church.
Why? The first 4 government functions he dismantled or took over are CFPB, NLRB, USAID, and Treasury. Weakening, removing, or taking control of any/all of those directly benefit him.
Either way, it doesn't matter what his motives are. He's not Congress.
Pretty much everything you said here doesn't align with history. And if anything, Catholics are more inclined to agree that the Bible is a product of human writing and translation because they don't agree with the Protestant doctrine of Sola scriptura. Also, Catholics consider the Orthodox church to be in communion with Rome - they don't consider it a different religion and aren't opposed to the Bible being translated into vernacular languages. No idea where that came from.
It’s an entire book length of material, but in short, for built up areas drivers are forced through street to design to be higher alert to their surroundings. EX: chicanes in the road, speed tables, brick roads, narrow streets, small/tight turn radius, no turn on red, etc. These all work together to make a system that is amongst the safest in the world for pedestrians, and by happenstance has the happiest drivers.
Also, bike traffic and vehicle through traffic are separated on different networks, so a conflicts are minimized.