Notices by Peter Bautista (peterbautista@hachyderm.io)

@danluu I don't think the poverty trap comes from having to, for instance, buy new boots frequently. In absolute terms, clearly poor people spend less than rich. But as a percentage of your available income, people spend more (eg they can't save). For me the classic example is banking -- if you're using a check-cashing service instead of a bank 1) you're checks are a lot smaller than most people with banks and 2) you're getting charged fees on top of that people in banks aren't.

> voting for politicians out of parasocial attachment is one of the most pernicious and enduring traps in electoral politics

Would "cultivates parasocial attachments among their follows" serve as a definition of political populism? Our parties are not symmetrical, as I'd argue the left is too diverse to effectively create a parasocial base large enough to win national elections, whereas there's (barely) a large enough "white identity politics" base for the right to do so.