Earlier quoted context omitted.
Feel free to act outraged. I am not going to further debate this charged topic. The authors are literally on every podcast trying to contrast themselves from various aspects of DOGE or deregulation and ideas that came before from Peter Thiel et al. That proves the point is not as far-fetched and crazy to debate, even if you disagree with the conclusion.
> Feel free to act outraged. I am not going to further debate this charged topic. I'd genuinely prefer to engage on specifics. What Trump administration policies do you think Klein is co-opting?
Move fast, break things: A review of Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
121–130 of 134 posts
Re: Move fast, break things: A review of Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
#122I just started reading it, but the housing part of it is spot on, something I know very well from years of working to try and make my city and state's housing situation better. The effects of the housing shortage are very real and something that can absolutely be worked on at the local and state level. Not enough housing means: * Longer commutes, which means more CO2, less time with friends and family, more stress, a…
If we genuinely cared about CO2, then RTO mandates would have been rare.
Re: Move fast, break things: A review of Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
#123Re: Move fast, break things: A review of Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
#124Another review: https://thebaffler.com/latest/whats-the-matter-with-abundanc...
> he last thing society needs is more stuff The only people who say this are incredibly privileged trust fund leftists. Everyone else knows that more stuff=better life all else equal. Maybe someday that'll change but for now most people are still resource constrained. How did this become a popular take among the dem thought makers?
Re: Move fast, break things: A review of Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m somewhat with you in principle with the first paragraph, but the second paragraph is factually incorrect. Marc Andreessen was a web visionary/pioneer and successful founder and investor. IMO, to say otherwise only hurts your argument.
I know that story intimately. He and Eric Bina wrote Mosiac for three months. Let's just say the Dotcom boom is how he and many others made their money.
Re: Move fast, break things: A review of Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
> he last thing society needs is more stuff The only people who say this are incredibly privileged trust fund leftists. Everyone else knows that more stuff=better life all else equal. Maybe someday that'll change but for now most people are still resource constrained. How did this become a popular take among the dem thought makers?
I think the point is that if stuff is energy then energy is flowing into the wrong things and is not equally distributed. So we have enough of "stuff" but a lot of it is the wrong kind and access to that is not democratic. Rephrased again - inefficient human organization and outdated systems of values are what is slowing us down.
Re: Move fast, break things: A review of Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you'd get near-universal agreement that some regulations somewhere are ineffective and/or counterproductive. If that's all the book is attempting to achieve, it's an extremely modest goal IMO. The problem is getting that same level of agreement about specific regulations - or, failing that, making a strong case for a specific reason why a regulation that many people think is necessary and good is actually bad…
The book identifies a problem that you yourself agree with: the Democratic coalition can't build anything, can't satisfy the needs of its constituents, is losing those constituents to Republican states that can, and is losing the faith of the electorate. It also offers a diagnosis (or rather, a set of them): the unintended consequences of localism, a legislative and regulatory system that oriented more than checking…
He's coming at if from his pov that he's aware of the problem but is looking for solutions... Which the author's don't give...
The problem is that human made laws deal with... Human beings... And hence with game theory...
So the intent of the law != Outcome of the law.
If you just throw away the law without considering Chesterton's fence etc you are probably throwing away the baby with the bathwater... And to fix it perfectly is basically impossible as it always is in complex matters... (if it was possible ie there wouldn't be accountants who can save millions/billions for cooperations...)
The book is describing problems that a lot of people, especially on this forum, are well aware off. However instead of saying - we need to do this, or even proposing a wiki/forum/whatever to specifically fix all those individual problems/ laws it just repeats what a lot of people are already aware off in a long spun out book.
Best other book I can think of that is similar in a way (and a best seller) is thinking fast and slow with the end conclusion being ~~~ eeeuhm there is no actual way to fix your thinking but hey maybe being aware off the 2 systems might help even though we've said this whole time that it doesn't really work.
So yeah, what specific solutions have you found in this book? If you agree that there aren't any... Maybe you just were looking for A and got A and he was hoping to get B and only got A ?
He's saying it's a problem book instead of a solution book and you are repeating but yes it's a great problem book... Why does there need to be a solution book. So maybe the marketing is at fault ?
(Anyway written at night on a phone so sorry for the badly written reply, I just noticed how you repeated more or less the same message and felt like communication was not being achieved despite lots of words being exchanged - I will clarify with a clearer head tomorrow to any reply - Hanoi time zone)
Re: Move fast, break things: A review of Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
#128I just started reading it, but the housing part of it is spot on, something I know very well from years of working to try and make my city and state's housing situation better. The effects of the housing shortage are very real and something that can absolutely be worked on at the local and state level. Not enough housing means: * Longer commutes, which means more CO2, less time with friends and family, more stress, a…
At the same time a recent NBER paper indicates that it’s not housing supply that’s causing house prices to rise, but geographic income levels. My suspicion is that it’s a question of who has more control over asset classes and wealth. Even in India, I see eye-wateringly expensive houses snapped up, with more being built. The same for london and any major city in the world. It feels very much like the biggest particip…
Re: Move fast, break things: A review of Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
#129I just started reading it, but the housing part of it is spot on, something I know very well from years of working to try and make my city and state's housing situation better. The effects of the housing shortage are very real and something that can absolutely be worked on at the local and state level. Not enough housing means: * Longer commutes, which means more CO2, less time with friends and family, more stress, a…
> which means more CO2 If we genuinely cared about CO2, then RTO mandates would have been rare.
Re: Move fast, break things: A review of Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
The book identifies a problem that you yourself agree with: the Democratic coalition can't build anything, can't satisfy the needs of its constituents, is losing those constituents to Republican states that can, and is losing the faith of the electorate. It also offers a diagnosis (or rather, a set of them): the unintended consequences of localism, a legislative and regulatory system that oriented more than checking…
He's just asking what are the specific proposals that should be enacted... That's it... Like know that you've read the book which exact law has to be passed / destroyed to increase housing supply... Without causing mass civil unrest... Which law has to be passed to get the high speed rail build in the next 3 years... Without destroying nature / being routed through poor people's home under eminent domain and not thro…