31 Jan 17
01 Apr 15
Unnecessary Instability →
Jean Pisani-Ferry, project-syndicate.org
The risks posed by larger public deficits have focused attention on “potential output growth,” a concept originally created by economists for economists. The concept’s imprecision and volatility have weakened the EU’s fiscal pact, and Europe's…
09 May 14
Browncoats are the most intense, dedicated, no hate, no bullshit fan base and I am so happy and proud to say I’m apart of that. I’m shy and awkward but when I go to cons and wait in lines these fans just sit and talk to you. They aren’t judging anyone they’re just happy to be there talking to you about something you both love. Its incredible the people you meet. How genuine they are. I love this fan base and I love this cast so much.
Keep Flying
(via fuckyeahfirefly)
31 Mar 14
Piketty’s book is important primarily because it proves the obvious, and this is the age of the obvious. You must prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, what any educated individual already should know because there is a lot of money in obfuscating the obvious. It pays very well to be a conservative ideologue spouting off about economic freedom, because very rich people want the government to make them rich, bail them out, and not tax them.— The Age of the Obvious: Thomas Piketty’s Capital (via azspot)
(via azspot)
31 Mar 14
How Young Thug Got Trapped By A $15,000 Advance From A Major Label →
Rapper Young Thug could be hip-hop’s next big star, but his career has hit frustrating music-industry roadblocks along the way. How did that happen — and what can labels do for rappers now, anyway?
(via the-feature)
03 Nov 13
The “Dependency” Argument →
The argument that welfare programs create “dependency” is a popular conservative response to proposals to help poor people. It’s also one I’m not (surprise) very moved by.
First things first, there’s a real practical problem with it. Let’s dissect what it really means: when conservatives say that welfare programs cause “dependency”, what they mean is that it causes poor people to become dependent upon the government to live.
With all of the terms made explicit, the problems become clear. As Liam Murphy and Thomas Nagel point out in The Myth of Ownership: Taxes and Justice, governments are distributional institutions. That is to say, governments are responsible for all distributions of all property and wealth, because without governments, there is zero enforcement of the laws that construct the state of “ownership.” Ownership is not a relationship between people and objects, after all; your land has no idea you “own” it. It’s a relationship between people — it’s only that other people behave differently toward land designated as “yours” that causes it to be distinct from all other land, and it’s only that the government causes it’s courts and police to do the same that confirms that.
Thus everyone is “dependent” upon the government to construct their allotment of wealth. The objects conservatives own are not distinct in this way. They depend upon the government to enforce a certain set of rules that govern relationships with other people and authorize particular forms of violence to protect their wealth. If the government stopped enforcing, say, contracts or trespassing laws tomorrow, conservatives who oppose welfare programs would be in much the same position that poor people are today: looking to the government to create some kind of justice for them so they can go on living.
In other words, the dependency of poor people and the dependency of rich people on government to go on living doesn’t really differ. So we know that the conservative argument here is not a practical argument in that the impacts they predict already exist, even if we take them at face values.
(via azspot)
25 Aug 13
Surveillance crisis →
Jetez un coup d’œil à mon magazine Flipboard, Surveillance crisis http://flip.it/6qngK