Surveillance, Pandemics, and Conspiracies

Lately there have been a number of people who point to this or that proposal for tracking infected people, or recovered people, or contact tracing during an epidemic. In some cases the proposals predate this pandemic. After all, pandemic response is not a new concept. But to people reading the ideas for the first time, some immediately see a conspiracy, as if the whole reason we are suffering a pandemic is because the...

Health Care Costs and Covid

Biden says coronavirus’ impact on health system hasn’t changed his mind on single-payer What will change a lot of minds: the 40% increase in premiums projected for next year as the insurance companies recapitalize to pay for everything the providers bill for keeping up with the virus (Aetna CEO’s comments during a conference call with investors). Think $25,000/year for a family plan is bad? Next year it...

Lying by Omission (Fox New Edition)

The headline reads: A new supervolcano is brewing under Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire Clearly this is aimed to alarm the typical midwestern viewer to seed a vague sense of unease and distrust even in the foundations of physical reality. It is a very transparent playbook. So what are the facts behind the imminent doom of a major portion of the US? A Supervolcano In New England? Here Are The Facts “Eventually,...

Politics, Democracy, and Social Media

Winston Churchill supposedly observed, “The strongest argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter”. Now thanks to social media we all get to have that conversation. Over and over and over again.

Criminal Justice and Deterrence

It’s Official: Child Molesters in Alabama Will Now Be Chemically Castrated In our current system I have a philosophical issue with any irreversible punishment. Our criminal-justice meat grinder has a terrible track record of errors, and little interest in correcting them. It is shot through with bias, both against minorities in general and against the poor (who at this point are getting up to half the population in...

Politics and Preferences

There are 8 major policy positions that the Democrats support, that a majority of Americans also support, according to polls. However, according to further polls, only 18% of Americans support all 8 of these policy positions. If Democrats insist on perfect purity – from candidates, but especially from voters – they will get 18% of the vote. If you can’t tolerate some differences of opinion, even on...

Misleading Memes: Social Security

File under: Things that superficially appear to make sense, but fall apart if you know anything about the subject at hand: What’s wrong with the right-wing meme? First, Social Security is insurance. Some people pay in more than they get. Others pay less and get more. (Almost) everyone is covered. No scammy investment adviser can rip you off (which is surprisingly common). Next, very few retail investors actually...

Why Republican Policies Succeed

Republican voters are a minority in the US, yet their policy objectives are repeatedly successful over the objections of the majority. What is the secret? Basically, Republicans will tolerate just about anything in a candidate, so long as the candidate wins and their policies end up getting advanced. By contrast Democrats can’t bring themselves to bother voting unless they fall in love with the candidate. And then they...

Student Loan Interest as Bad Social Policy

So outstanding student loans in the US are about $1.5 trillion. Most are at 6-8% interest, and are federally guaranteed. Meaning whoever holds the loan cannot lose money (if the loan isn’t paid by the borrower, the Federal government makes the lender whole). Since offsetting losses is the whole purpose of interest, this is pretty much a $90 billion per year federal give-away to big banks. They get to collect the...

On the Demise of Amazon’s HQ2 in NYC

So Amazon just canceled their planned NYC 2nd Headquarters, because of local resistance. A lot of people are rushing to frame this as “local socialists hate capitalism”. I would argue that it is much better understood as a question of fairness and the integrity of capitalism. Why should Amazon get a deal thousands of times better than any that existing local business get? Why should the government pick winners...

Examples of the Effects of Distorted Social Policy...

Rich People Pay for Private Firefighters While the Rest of Us Burn Welcome to the 1% society, where the 1% take care of themselves. Back in the 1950s the 1% paid taxes  at 90% rate at the top income brackets, and the money took care of everyone. That may have been a bit high (the US was still paying off WWII). In the 1960s the top rate was lowered to 70%. Today it is 37%, the with loopholes out of control. The effective rate...

The Economic Data that Explains Voter Attitudes

“Prices rose at their highest clip since 2012 over the past year, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The 2.9 percent inflation for the 12-month period ending in June is a sign of a growing economy, but it’s also a painful development for workers, whose tepid wage gains have failed to keep pace with the rising prices.” Chicago Tribune, last month. So the economy grew by 4.1%, but everything got 2.9%...