Notices by Kyle Montanio (fantasticaleconomics@geekdom.social)

Now is a fine time to stop the infighting between everyone left of fascist.

Blaming leftists for not voting or centrists for downplaying Gaza, for example, both have some merit but miss the point entirely. It's not our preferences nor policy disagreements that are propelling US fascism - it's deep-seated racism and misogyny and hatred.

Figure out who the real enemies are, and act accordingly. We all lose if we cannot come together right now.

That's how I see it, at least.

#USPolitics

Shoutout to everyone incorporating #HarrisWalz signs into their halloween decorations.

Way to use All Hallows' Eve to prevent something truly scary.

#USPolitics

I know most on this list are already big fans of Kate Raworth and her Doughnut Economics model. For those who are less familiar, her TED Talk (which as I reflect on it is probably the link I share most on here) is a great starting point:

https://www.ted.com/talks/kate_raworth_a_healthy_economy_should_be_designed_to_thrive_not_grow?subtitle=en

@lyndamerry484 @Quantillion @breadandcircuses @gerrymcgovern @Tallish_Tom

@aral

Even pro-capitalist folks should be able to recognize that the free market doesn't work in all cases. For instance, when the only way to 'compete' is by screwing over your customers, maybe it's time to try a different system.

Insurance most obviously fits into this category, and I think public utilities are similar (like the UK's privatized sewage disaster).

@scottsantens

"Most people come out of prison with an extraordinary amount of debt, in addition to the ordinary costs of rent, food, clothing, things like that. If you’re unable to make those payments, you will be re-incarcerated, just for not having enough money.

We use this phrase all the time: ‘you are too poor to be free’. It’s the unfortunate truth, and it happens all the time. People go in and out of prison because of poverty, and they stay in poverty because of prison."

If one were to be a one-issue voter (not recommended, btw), #ClimateChange seems like the only that would make sense as the one-and-only thing to care about.

Nothing else compares to the scale and magnitude of suffering it will cause. No other issue has litteral world-ending consequences (except, possibly, a nuclear war).

When one candidate is still actively denying climate change and the other is pushing for progress to combat it, at least a little, the choice should be obvious.

#Politics

Trump's war on experts is clearly detrimental, and causing the most harm to those least able to bear it.

We see him politicizing the severe storms that we know are exacerbated by #ClimateChange while he continues to deny the existence of it. This is not the way to help the world, nor any specific group we care about (assuming we don't care about billionaires, which we shouldn't).

The best choice for the world is to #VoteBlue.

https://www.axios.com/2024/10/12/trump-hurricanes-climate-change-experts

How far off do you think we are from folks, especially politicians, on the right saying "now is not the time to talk about #ClimateChange," after major natural disasters?

I feel like that's the next step in their playbook once flat denial loses its effectiveness.

@phil_stevens

Truth. Both are delay tactics the fossil fuel industry is heavily using. Pretty amazing that such contradictory statements can be used to achieve the exact same goal - delay progress to increase profits (just as @_noelamac_ describes).

Too many people (most notably economists) fail to recognize the impacts of #economics on societal norms.

The #capitalism that touts self-interest is largely responsible for raising narcissists like Trump and Musk to pedestals that far outstrip any benefit to society they could possibly provide.

Almost every culture has had social norms, and often laws, to combat human tendencies toward greed. But the religion of capitalism has, unfortunately, transmuted a deadly sin into admirable virtue.

Once upon a time, I could not fathom how Hitler rose to power. I read the books. I watched the documentaries. But I couldn't understand how everyday people let such obvious evil flourish.

Intellectually knowing the reasons - such as stoking amorphous fears and scapegoating innocent others - wasn't enough.

Regretfully, I think I finally understand how such things come to pass. And it saddens me that we, apparently, need to learn this lesson first hand every few generations.

#MicroNonfiction

Sam Altman believes #AI is using a trivial amount of energy.

"The energy use of AI, I think relative to the value it's creating, is quite tiny today. I don't want to minimize it too much, because it's going to go up — like we will use gigawatts over time, out of, you know, terawatts on Earth."

I guess this depends on if the energy use of small countries is trivial and if you believe Earth can sustain producing terawatts of energy indefinitely.

https://www.axios.com/2024/09/24/sam-altman-openai-united-nations
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-ai-boom-could-use-a-shocking-amount-of-electricity/

Means testing harms the mean household and is just plain mean, by design.

Study after study shows that providing social safety nets - benefits the vast majority of people support - is cheaper and more efficient when you get rid of the hurdles to prove you qualify.

Means testing punishes those most in need who are often least able to spend time and energy to complete the intentionally difficult process to access benefits, and results in higher costs.

https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2022/11/11/universal-benefits-cost-less-than-means-tested-benefits/

#UBI #BasicIncome

Another debunked idea still pushed in mainstream #economics is that capitalism leads to democracy - some even go as far to say capitalism is a necessary condition of democracy.

This is just cold-war era propaganda that still occasionally shows up in econ classrooms to this day. If anything, unfettered free-market capitalism almost necessarily devolves into oligarchy, rather than bolstering democracy, as the biggest companies in the world are showcasing well as we speak.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/sep/23/amazon-tesla-meta-climate-change-democracy

This saddens me, on many levels. #AI companies are looking to profit from the loneliness epidemic - which #capitalism and tech companies played no small part in bringing about - through AI social media.

"While experts disagree on whether AI is a good cure for loneliness, people are already befriending bots — and investors see a business opportunity in the phenomenon."

It's awful that online spaces are so hostile that people are turning to automation to meet this need.

https://www.axios.com/2024/09/22/social-media-ai-bot-app-x

Great news everyone! #AI will add $19.9 trillion to the global economy by 2030.

Worry not that it will burn the land and boil the seas with it's heavy energy use nor steal from the images and words of creatives to put them out of work, cause it will surely turn some millionaires into billionaires and, maybe, even a lucky billionaire or two into trillionaires!

https://www.axios.com/2024/09/17/ai-global-economy-idc-2030

#economics

Prevention is, almost always, cheaper than treatment, but treatment is more profitable and will be pursued, almost always, in capitalist economies.

This simple rule can help understand healthcare, #ClimateChange, poverty, and the list goes on. In fact, I am pretty sure you can trace this back to, if not the root, a core consideration foundational building block of any arm of the #Polycrisis we are facing today.

#economics

The horrors of #Project2025 are hard to keep track of. It's almost 900 pages of fascism that few of us have time to read.

Good news! The website 25 And Me has you covered. Choose the topics you care about (climate, democracy, reproductive rights, etc.) and it provides related quotes, page numbers, and a brief interpretation of the implications.

Seriously, sit down with the conservatives in your life with this resource and show them what they're supporting.

https://www.25and.me

#USPolitics

"Don't believe the lie of individual trees, each a monument to its own self-made success. A forest is an interdependent community. Resources are shared, and life in isolation is a death sentence."
-Becky Chambers in To Be Taught, If Fortunate

#economics #Neoliberalism

@mmasnick

That's kind of what I feared. I appreciate the insights!

@hallvors