For context , read this.
Exploring the variables that matter most. Exploding the conventional wisdom that rules us.
Category: as not seen on tv
What 31 years of California data show: Wildfires burn 226% more every year than in late 1980s and cost the state’s taxpayers 5,260% more every year.
What James Madison thought about a federal judiciary chosen by a majority of states BUT a minority of people
The Father of the Constitution—James Madison—feared that Senators representing a majority of states BUT a minority of Americans could end up picking our judges.
Fast forward 233 years…
What did George Washington think about individualism? We know. Here it is:
As the US debates making compulsory wearing a mask to prevent the spread of a deadly pandemic, it’s instructive to think what the Father of our country—George Washington thought about individual freedom vs the general good.
Those parts of the Constitution that the Father of the Constitution–James Madison–didn’t want. At all.
What if the Founding Fathers didn’t actually like the Constitution they ended up with?
Between 1900 & 2014, the US went from spending basically $0 to 8% of GDP—and its citizens gained 31 more years of life
Between 1900 and 2014, the US spent 8X more of its national income on public health. During the same time, its citizens could expect to live 31 years longer.
130 years after the Civil War, Black Male Workers Died Twice as Often in the South
Researchers at the National Institute of Health examined six years of workplace safety data from the 1990s. Here’s what they found:
Syllogism Wednesday: Money & Power edition
Here’s a short story:
Saturday syllogism: What we talk about when we talk about inequality
Here’s my short story for Saturday:
Forgotten Lessons from the Constitutional Convention: What worried Ben Franklin about giving small states equal political power as large states
During the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Ben Franklin was concerned that giving states equal power regardless of their populations would allow a minority to rule a majority. Fast forward to 2020: The GOP Senate majority […]
The architects of the Constitution–the real protagonists of the United States– dreamed of a different government than what they settled for.
The US Senate *majority* represents a *minority* of the population and a minority of the economy. The very structure of our government is flawed—and it’s exactly what the protagonists of the US Constitution feared. Consider […]
Wonky Geometry: How paying people whether they work or not can increase the wages of the working
Short version (to be elaborated on in future post): UBI (and M4A and affordable housing) raises reservation wage –> shifts labor supply curve —> new (higher) equilibrium wage.
Because science: “Every particle in nature has an amplitude to move backwards in time..”
“Every particle in nature has an amplitude to move backwards in time…”
How’d the West defeat Communism? De facto socialism. B/w 1947-1991, government comprised 40%-60% of “Capitalist” UK, US, France, Italy, West Germany…
Capitalism defeated Communism? More like de facto socialism defeated Russian imperialism. Here’s why.
Why taxing Billionaires is not a violation of a free market but rather a correction of a failing one
Billionaires aren’t winners of an actual free market. Their companies (eg Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Berkshire Hathaway, et al) are price-setting, not price-taking, monopolies, monopsonies and oligopolies. Investors don’t want to invest in companies with competition. […]
Gun ownership fell substantially between 1973 and 2014. Guess what else did: the chances of getting murdered.
The relationship between gun ownership rate and the homicide rate is clear. They’re closely connected. So just how closely correlated are they? Well, in fact, the rate of gun ownership explains 76% of the variation […]
When more employees in a state are represented by unions, families earn more money. A lot more.
Read the chart. It should speak for itself. I bring data to the convo. No point arguing about subject without seeing the numbers. Here they are. The correlation is significant. R-squared value shown. […]
