The USSR also tried to form alliances with the Allies but we’re rejected. Nazi Germany was very much their last choice despite being invaded by many of the Allies during the Russian Civil War

In a less capitalist framework, I think that would be a waste of resources in the vast majority of cases. So much of Florida is spread out. It would take a crazy amount of workers to get everything worth saving sufficiently prepared. I’d much prefer they pick a few metros to denisfy and harden. Then they can give folks in actual financial distress a pension for their trouble.

Even in a capitalist framework the upkeep costs might not be worth it passed a decade or three.

I feel like what will actually happen is the government bails out all the corporate owners of these properties and let’s everyone else take the loss. Same thing they did in 2008 basically. That has the added benefit of making housing everywhere else get more expensive, due to climate refugees, so land speculators and landlords will be happy.

That sort of thing can happen in extreme situations. Zimbabwe and Weimar Germany are the most prominent examples. Both examples involved not having enough stuff. When there aren’t enough necessary goods to buy and people have plenty of money you’re going to get inflation. Using the right combo of subsidies, government run production, purchase quantity limits, reserves, vouchers, and price fixing you can ensure the supply is stable and eliminate inflation even if there’s lots of money.

That’s true. That happens because people are stuck in the narrative of the government needing a balanced budget, just like a household. It also happens because the owners and the corpos use all their money and power to ensure workers pay taxes and thus decrease worker money and power.

Yeah, if the population was educated on MMT the ability to bring corpos to heel would be significantly increased. People arguing for it are fundamentally arguing for a change in how we think about money.

Boeing used to be a fairly effective company. They had a good union and the work was largely engineer led.

The rightward turn of the 1970s eroded the union and culture. By the 2000s there was only two big players in the commercial aerospace market: Boeing and Airbus. McDonnell Douglas were limping along in a distant third place.

Boeing hoped to diversify their offerings by buying MD and using their more successful military aerospace business. MD’s officers ended up gaining a lot of power in the merger and they began the process of running the firm into the ground. They went full cost cutting short term bullshit after that.

Summary of this article

Seems a bit lib but I think there’s some truth there

Outside left. Funny that they put it near the center given I tend to think of myself well to the left of the Democrats.

Yeah, I had to install a different launcher Bliss is not my style. I’ve been enjoying lawnchair tho

There are alternatives to owning a tractor yourself. Finding a group of people who would use the tractor is feasible. Setup a democratic system to control the use of the tractor and a system of dues to ensure it is well maintained. Basically treat the tractor as a commons that people can exploit in an ethical manner.

This kind of system can be expanded to all means of production in theory. All capital treated as commons for workers to use.

This has the added benefit of being feasible within the current system, makes it easier for workers to survive, and acting as material evidence for alternative economic systems.

Depends on the plant. Some plants, like plum or fig trees, have a lot of suckers poking out of the ground and putting up shoots. If they get disconnected from the rest of the roots they keep on growing.

The Fed is a slightly different beast. They don’t spend money into existence like the government does. They lend money into existence. Their primary lever is at what interest rate that lending is done. Anderson Cooper believes in the Chicago School, the poor sod. It’s basically the premier economic theory of the US establishment

But we had to rename them to freedom fries after 9/11

The Deficit Myth uses a different reasoning that’s more widely applicable to fiat currencies. Fiat currencies have value, are used in commerce, because you have to pay your taxes in them. You can’t pay with Bitcoin, real estate, or commodities.

Inflation on the other hand is caused by basic supply and demand. Inflation happens when more people want to buy a good than is in supply. The most recent inflation in the US was caused by supply shocks due to covid and eventually the war in Ukraine. Because so much of our economy is monopolized, a few players were able to artificially raise their prices using the real inflation as a smoke screen.

Hypothetically a treasury could print, or swap some numbers in a spreadsheet, as much money as they wanted into existence and no inflation would occur. Assuming everyone was able to buy what they wanted at a fixed price.

Do you want to read the article? They might be talking about this: https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

I’d guess Tendency of the rate of profit to fall but I’m not sure either.

Edit: after some cursory googling, I believe I’m correct.

Groups of humans have lived beneficially with other life before. Plenty of folks are doing it right now. The endless need for consumption and extraction are manufactured for the benefit of the few. Eliminate the system that requires endless economic growth and we can start making decisions that won’t destroy ourselves and others

Local library, archive.org, independent book stores, and bookshop.org

Audiobooks from library, libro.fm, deDRMed from my old audible library, and piracy

Organize your workplace, join the IWW if you want to know how.

Buy your food as directly as possible from farmers, CSAs, food co-ops and buyers clubs are a good first step to decomodifying food.

Organize renters to prevent evictions and rent increases through collect action. Support non-profits that supply non-market housing. Advocate for and support your local houseless population. If houseless people can’t be used as a moral lesson for workers, they’ll feel more able to organize.

Read some history, all of this shit has happened before. People fought it in the past and won victories. We can too.

Vote in local elections. This will have a greater effect than voting in national elections and can move the needle on significant issues in some states. You can vote in national elections too I guess

Basically act collectively and educate yourself. The process of taking power from the owners will be a slow process but solidarity and empathy for your fellow workers is the only way we can get out of this.

The only book of his I’d recommend is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. It’s quite Anarcho Capitalist, and sexist in places but it’s an interesting revolution story regardless and has some interesting ideas in it

I’m not as confident with chopsticks so I use a long set of stainless tongs and find them quite useful

I’ve got a Fellow Opus so I can make espresso, as well as less fine ground coffee. It’s quieter than other grinders I’ve used. I’ve also used a 1zpresso hand grinder and found it effective. Both are overkill for pour over or drip coffee

Mostly a matter of taste I think. One benefit is one less key press since relative keys shouldn’t need to press enter at the end of the command. I mostly use it because it came default with LazyVim.