And yet, communities have collective needs, and require that some of us administer those needs. What are we to do? Embrace anarchy or libertarianism? Not for me I don’t think. Just push for systems that create positive, pro-social incentive structures. It is the best I think we can do.

Do you want to know why the dems didn’t stand behind rail workers? It’s actually pretty simple.

Inflation is out of control, wages are increasing but not at rates that make ordinary workers feel secure. Supply chain issues from the pandemic are lingering and contributing to prices skyrocketing. A rail disruption would have exacerbated an issue that democrats already see as potentially existential.

So what leverage did those workers have? Yes they could fuck up the lives of ordinary people by destroying our fragile supply chains. Yes they could trash the profits of the rail companies. Yes they could pressure democrats to push for a speedy resolution as the politics of this strike would have been a disaster for them. So they played there hand. Turns out dems needed trains running more than another labor win. So they turned their backs on them and still have run the most pro labor admin since FDR.

Politics is messy and tough calls get made every day. Regarding AOC, she is smart, and probably learned in her first week that this shit is hard and there are a million ways to lose by winning. Playing the game strategically and having long term goals is not ideological. It’s just good governance.

Legislative work is a career. One gets better at their career the longer they do it. I don’t hire rookie electricians, and I hate that my state forces to vote for useless green legislators. They don’t know what they are doing and they kowtow to lobbyists and interests who write all the bills that pass here. Term limits are step one in legislative capture.

Thanks for making room for an opinion that is often unpopular in left dominated online spaces.

My friends from HS and I are all still very close and hang out a few times a year. For the most part we are all doing quite well career and financial wise. The exception is my good friend who studied to be a music teacher. He is brilliant and hard working, but has had to hustle twice as hard as I have for half as much.

For 20 yrs he has been paying on his loans for undergrad and a masters degree. He has had to take jobs in every corner of the country to try and get established. I saw him a few weeks ago and he announced that thanks to Uncle Joe, he was now student debt free.

My wife and I might grumble a little when we start writing checks again in a few months but I feel a lot better knowing that more support is going out to those who truly need it.

After the 2008 financial crisis (when the article claims the divergence started). The US and the EU chose different paths. The US chose bailouts and the EU went with austerity. Both were very unpopular, but one of them was also stupid. Helping the “wrong” people, it turns out was a better choice than trying to actively hurt all the people.

I’m sure there is a lot of other factors at play but EU governments getting religion about belt tightening and small-government in ‘09-‘12 was phenomenally stupid.