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Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

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Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#181

Post by asdff »

zozbot234 wrote: post #142
asdff wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prop 13 is a nothingburger. Median homeownership period in california vs nationally is only like 2 years longer. It shouldn't be affecting costs that much in other words since median property is back to market rate every 15 years or so. And what costs are we talking about anyhow? Tax shortfalls for local government? Decades later that has been rectified through other taxes and funding mechanisms and we still get new…

That's not really the point. Prop 13 is known to be a huge disincentive to efficient transfers in home ownership - people will strenuously avoid selling their homes and buying something that's closer to the kind of shelter they actually prefer, because they might have to pay a higher assessed property tax if they did that. These effects are very real and well documented.

Prop 13 wouldn't lead to those incentives if property prices didn't increase so aggressively. Once again comes back to zoning as the root cause. Is prop 13 bad? Only in the face of inappropriate zoned capacity, it seems. Which begs the question of what prop 13 removal would even do in such a situation? Zoning capacity isn't changing so prices will still go up beyond what is affordable for the median worker. The only thing changing is people won't be insulated from that rise at the end of their life when they are on a fixed income is all. Does that solve the housing crisis? No, but it does ensure more people are regularly displaced from their homes.

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#182

Post by roughly »

terminalshort wrote: post #160
oulipo2 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. We should tax billionaires away.

[flagged]

Wait, are you suggesting we _shouldn't_ treat billionaires as a collective action problem to be dealt with via policy? So you're suggesting what, individual violence?

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#183

Post by CamperBob2 »

amarcheschi wrote: post #120
CamperBob2 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hot take: what has democracy done for us lately? Besides re-electing Donald Trump? If something can't go on forever, it will eventually stop. That applies to any system that gives stupid people the same political voice as the rest of the electorate. I mean, it seems kind of obvious, doesn't it?

Ask yourself which class can gain something by having trump as president rather than any other democrat (it's not the working class)

Exactly. So why'd the "working class" vote for him?

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#184

Post by anthem2025 »

terminalshort wrote: post #78
xyst wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

System is broken af. Politicians don’t want to reign in on campaign financing because it will hurt their own re-election and campaign fundraising. Republicans have bought/installed the SCOTUS which allowed for favorable decision in Citizens United v FEC. This corporation dominated landscape is quite awful. Corporations have more rights than woman right now.

Citizens United was the correct decision. I don't understand how you can legitimately restrict political activity. The constitution contains the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. Why should certain groups of people not have this right? The constitution also contains the right to freedom of the press. Why should the government get to decide who gets to exercise this right?

[dead]

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#185

Post by limagnolia »

RobotToaster wrote: post #101
limagnolia wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is politics if not a means of exercising power? If there were no power in politics, no one would be interested in politics.

That power is supposed to be exercised to enact the will of the people, for the good of the people.

Is it? In the US, our constitution is setup to prevent absolute democracy from occurring. The idea of an absolute democracy where the government always acts on the will of the majority as an ideal is hardly a universal value.

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#187

Post by mjamesaustin »

kadabra9 wrote: post #54
bhouston wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your statement is ignoring the systematic growing inequality in the US between the ultra wealthy and everyone else. And the use of those funds to influence politics (because of Citizens United, etc) to create polices that benefit themselves - it is for the ultra wealthy a virtuous circle: https://inequality.org/facts/wealth-inequality/ This is not a normal state of affairs.

This tax would do effectively nothing to address growing inequality between billionaires and everyone else.

I see, so you're suggesting 5% is not enough? I'm listening...

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#188

Post by thomassmith65 »

jemmyw wrote: post #165
thomassmith65 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you put a question to the electorate like 'should we tax only people whose last name begins with an X, Y or Z?' , it's liable to pass. Nobody really advocates for Direct Democracy. It isn't viable: 'tyranny of the majority' etc. Most Western governments are Liberal Democracies - where some issues aren't subject to a vote - partly so that the mob can't persecute outnumbered subgroups.

That is highly unlikely. People may seem stupid when acting as a larger group, but I think part of that is that our current democracy doesn't require much engagement. If we moved to direct democracy then imo we'd get some bad policies that would quickly be reverted once the effects become apparent, and then voters are going to be a bit more careful. For example, "only taxing people whose last name begins with X, Y, Z…

I can't muster the enthusiasm to debate this. There are centuries of literature on this topic involving people smarter and more eloquent than me. The following wikipedia entry has examples you may find more persuasive than mine:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranny_of_the_majority

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#189

Post by terminalshort »

femiagbabiaka wrote: post #161
terminalshort wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is Elon's editorial control of X something the government needs to (or even should have the power to) "reign in?" How is that not freedom of the press just like the owner of the New York Times having editorial control over his newspaper? Same goes for his donation to the PAC. What is the nefarious activity they are engaged in? Why are they not allowed to exercise their freedom of the press in the same way as any…

1. X is not, and has never been, "the press". 2. If you were to have categorized them this way previously, botting and pay-for-reach have made it definitely not that way now. 3. It is bad when any individual can shift the politics of the entire globe simply because they have enough money. Feel free to insert your most hated left-wing billionaire instead of Elon, I still believe the same thing.

[flagged]

Re: Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

#190

Post by phatfish »

terminalshort wrote: post #164
bpodgursky wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If rich techies had too much influence in California, the state government would not look like what it does. I mean I just don't see how you get to this opinion after any real review of the evidence.

[flagged]

Less competent might be a disservice. But I've seen nothing to suggest that execs/founders are any more competent that the average employee. Execs and founders just had a few more dice rolls go their way.
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