According to the press release from Sanders’s Senate office, Stop BEZOS “aims to end corporate welfare by establishing a 100 percent tax on corporations with 500 or more employees equal to the amount of federal benefits received by their low-wage workers. For example, if a worker at Amazon receives $2,000 in food stamps, the corporation would be taxed $2,000 to cover that cost.”
Tag: action
The Truth is Too Harsh for Some to Handle
The truth is “unhelpful”. It’s not polite. Those who point out the truth are Big Ol’ Meanies! They hurt the feewings of the people who are trying to molest people instead of doing honest trade. I have a long history of hurting these people’s feelings. But it’s their choice. They are free to stop molesting any time.
Central Planning: Also a Bad Idea for the Environment
Monoculture is often a side effect of central planning. Say you’re imposing policies for a large area. You’re likely to pass over the need for variety, complexity, and spontaneity. Central plans can’t adapt to the need for differences in environmental practices and priorities from one place to another.
Lyft and Uber Rides are the New Marketplaces for Ideas
It’s interesting to watch (and participate) in what can happen in a philosophical or political conversation on one of these rides. I had a conversation yesterday with someone who casually confessed to me that he was a democratic socialist. I perked up when I heard that. It’s not every day you meet a self-confessed socialist.
Anti-Israelism and Anti-Semitism: The Invidious Conflation
As I’ve explained, this bill incorporates a conception — a “definition” plus potential examples — of anti-Semitism that conflates criticism of Israel’s founding and continuing abuse of the Palestinians with anti-Semitism for the purpose inoculating Israel from such criticism. Anti-Zionist Jews and others have objected to this conflation for over 70 years.
Overvaluing or Undervaluing Motivations
I think when people discuss the motivations of human interaction (politics, history, and economics included) they often don’t realize that they understand many of the relevant factors, but they often overvalue and undervalue certain ones. For example, I tend to think historians overvalue leadership and undervalue economics.
Language, Intent, & Bigotry
Racism/sexism/bigotry are allegations of intent. If a strong wind blows and sticks align to spell “Cunt,” we wouldn’t think the wind is sexist because the wind holds no intent. If a woman were offended, we would properly say that she is attributing false intent to random events.
On the “Participatory” Part of “Participatory Fascism”
When I use “participatory fascism”—for me a technical term in political economy, not an ideological or rhetorical cudgel—most people react to the “fascism” part and disregard the “participatory” part. Yet that part is critical to one’s understanding of how this system of rule proves so durable and resilient.
A Case Against Optimizing Your Life
Many people I know are on a quest to optimize their lives — some of my favorite people in the world will spend days trying to perfect a productivity system, get things automated, or find the perfect software for anything they’re doing. They are on a continual search for the perfect diet, the perfect work routine, the perfect travel setup. Optimizing can take quite a bit of time and energy. What would happen if we let go of optimizing?
Stop Criminalizing Parenthood
Today it seems that childhood freedom has gone the way of afternoon paper routes. Both are relics of an earlier time, when kids were allowed—expected even—to be outside, unsupervised, playing with friends around the neighborhood, riding bikes, mowing lawns, walking dogs, and a whole host of other common childhood activities.