Stop criminalizing upward mobility

[ygolo]

There are several strains of thought coming together for this thread.

First, the long standing issues with housing:

Moral imperative for a housing crash... and permanent devaluation

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-days-of-work-to-afford-a-monthly-mortgage-by-state/ It's worse near certain economic centers. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-salary-needed-to-buy-a-house-in-americas-10-wealthiest-towns/#google_vignette Note: Only three of these exist outside of...

www.typologycentral.com

Second, the sides of the left that are finally realizing the issue:

The Malthusian Zero-Sum "resource" myth vs human ingenuity

https://www.autonomy.works/

www.typologycentral.com

Ezra Klein in particular seems to be leading the charge.

But the reactions from the other parts of the left are pretty tone-deaf:

The Democrats Are Finally Landing On a New Buzzword. It’s Actually Compelling.

Liberals’ favorite journalist has a plan for their comeback.

slate.com

Do Democrats Need to Learn How to Build?

Liberals have long emphasized protections over progress. Champions of the “abundance agenda” think it’s high time to speed things up.

www.newyorker.com

You have to realize, that despite knowing the disaster that befalls us now, more people chose this path than the alternative. You really have to understand why that is the case, instead of continuing down that path.

I don't condone political violence nor people reveling in the pain of others. But as much as the left like to bring up the broad public support for the shooting of the healthcare CEO. There was also plenty of glee around rich people's houses burning in Pacific Palisades, and whether you like it or not there is still a vocal contingent cheering on the gutting of government worker positions.

Yet you continue:

https://www.typologycentral.com/thr...way-to-deal-with-big-tech.117293/post-3411119

You can't build housing in California. You can't build trains. Now they are passing laws so that you can't build software, even (the only thing that can be legally built).

I'll expound on the demographics of the left when I get a chance. The only explanation of the tone-deafness that led to losing an election to a crazy person is the demographics. It could lead to even losing the mid-terms after the current chaos, if people don't wise up.

 

[ygolo]

Why do I want to talk about the demographics of the left? I have complained about Big Tech for some time.

However, the criticism I would have seen from people in fields like the arts, humanities, and journalism are strangely pushing in the opposite direction from egalitarianism in tech and restricting upward mobility instead. I found this mysterious and almost a betrayal. But the more I understand the demographics, the more I know why they are anti-egalitarian.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joes.12618

As Karol Jan Borowiecki, an economist at the University of Southern Denmark, writes in a recent study, someone whose family has an income of $100,000 is twice as likely to become an artist, actor, musician or author than a would-be creative with a family income of $50,000. Raise annual income to $1 million and $100,000, respectively, and the stakes become even higher, with members of the first household nearly 10 times more likely to choose a creative profession than those from the second. Overall, Borowiecki posits, every additional $10,000 in total income, or pre-tax earnings of immediate family members, makes a person two percent more likely to enter a creative field.

Want to be an artist or designer? New study shows you need rich parents - Idea to Value

People in creative professions are likely to be earning significantly less than their parents earned, usually no more than Janitors, Maids or Waiters.

www.ideatovalue.com

Statistically, there are certain things you do if you want to do better socioeconomically than your parents and certain things you do if it can be okay if you do the same or worse than your parents.

One wonders at the attempts at criminalizing the professions that make you better off than your parents by those who have rich ones.

 

[ygolo]

Other people pushing along similar lines as "Abundance":

Marc Dunkelman on Why Nothing Works

Yascha Mounk and Marc Dunkelman discuss what's holding the U.S. back.

www.persuasion.community

How Progressives Broke the Government

Democrats’ cultural aversion to power has cleaved an opening for Trump.

www.theatlantic.com

--

How Progressives Froze the American Dream

The U.S. was once the world’s most geographically mobile society. Now we’re stuck in place—and that’s a very big problem.

www.theatlantic.com

Yoni Appelbaum On Migration Within America

His book on the history of housing and mobility is a riveting read. Listen now on the Dishcast.

andrewsullivan.substack.com

 

[ygolo]

Infrastructure issues
California High-Speed Rail:

California High-Speed Rail - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

New York Second Avenue subway:

Where the Second Avenue Subway Went Wrong

American infrastructure projects often cost five to six times what they cost in other developed countries. Can we learn to be thriftier?

www.newyorker.com

Boston Big Dig:

https://www.taxpayer.net/transportation-infrastructure/big-dig-billions-over-budget/

Infrastructure more generally:

Impact of Project Delays and Cost Overruns in Infrastructure Projects - dependbuild

Infrastructure projects are the backbone of modern society, shaping our cities, transportation systems, and overall quality of life. However, the successful completion of these projects is often marred by the daunting challenges of delays and cost overruns. In this blog post, we will delve into...

dependbuild.com

 

[ygolo]

Housing
I created another thread for housing. But I want to highlight a couple of places where well-intentioned laws lead to issues with housing and homelessness.

California:

Linking CEQA to California’s Housing Crisis | Case Studies | Holland & Knight

Litigation under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is worsening the state's housing crisis, according to a new Holland & Knight study.

www.hklaw.com

Opinion: Despite noble intentions, California's environmental law is hurting Latinos

CEQA has been abused for decades to block affordable housing and drive up costs, taking the greatest toll on young residents and Latino households.

www.latimes.com

New York:

https://www.enterprisecommunity.org/news/enterprise-statement-housing-commitments-governor-hochuls-2024-state-state-address

https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/cjel/article/download/5758/2819

I could state by state. However, the problem is worse in the most liberal cities and states.

 

[ygolo]

Technology

I have started many threads regarding technology and enforced scarcity, including:

Supporting Little Tech is the Practical Way to Deal with Big Tech

Imagine if, during the Luddite rebellion, instead of skilled laborers breaking the machines, we had newsboys who came around and beat up the skilled laborers instead. Imagine if, instead of passing regulations to help the "little guy" in an industry, you passed regulations to solidify the...

www.typologycentral.com

and

The CHIPS and Science Act, Moore's Law and other political acknowledgements of the importance of research for human progress

One of the things that has been an underlying force for a lot of the innovation we have seen for about the last 60 years is Moore's Law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law Again, this is not a physical law (nor is it a legal obligation, lol). There has been a multi-corporate...

www.typologycentral.com

Unless people want to see a Silicon Age collapse similar to the Late Bronze Age collapse(exaggerated though some of that history is), I believe the technology topic is worth considering.

There's just too much I want to say about the criminalization of upward mobility in technology. I will post multiple parts when I have time.

The broad strokes are around:
1) Making Big Tech win by pretending to be against it.
2) Having the US lose the ability to manufacture the cutting edge of chips by pretending to support it.

 

[ygolo]

Microchips
If you believe what Trump is doing regarding tariffs is unique in being too quick, one needs to only look at what happened in Microchips for some familiar things.

https://www.investors.com/news/technology/chips-act-us-semiconductor-industry-intel-tsmc-nvidia/

Concerns Grow in Washington over Intel

Intel’s wobbles may force Washington to choose between two of its ideological priorities: promoting national champions and preventing corporate consolidation. On a clear day, there’s little chance antitrust regulators would allow Intel to merge with any of its rivals. Expediency often forces...

semiwiki.com

Promoting national champions vs. undue consolidation. Those are always going to be competing priorities.

But only one firm in the US, hanging on by a thread, made humanity's most complicated physical product. The knowledge to make it is learned practically through highly technical apprenticeships in increasingly specialized chemistry, material science, and manufacturing fields.

Now, essentially, there are zero.

 

[ygolo]

Software in Big Tech

I know Big Tech companies do more than software and have become conglomerates. Nvidia is hardware, but they're a relative newcomer. There are logistics and such.

However, core search (Alphabet), operating systems(Microsoft/Apple), and advertising (Alphabet/Meta) are all software products.

Regarding supply chains, software is on the other end of complexity from microchips (despite going hand-in-hand). You may need people with a certain proclivity, and experience and taste help a lot, but the requirements (fundamentally, barring laws to the contrary) anyone can decide right now they want to learn to build software and learn the basics at a public library.

I have complained elsewhere that the closed nature of cloud and mobile makes learning those skills at a public library much more complicated than just learning to program. There used to be free avenues to learn these skills, but they were short-lived.

But the fight between open and closed source "AI" is going full bore.

Anyone can learn the technology people call "AI"

I want to strongly encourage everyone to learn data science and machine learning skills. (While you still can) What "AI" means morphs and changes from generation to generation. Right now, the main areas are around data science and machine learning, and in particular deep learning, and...

www.typologycentral.com

I encourage people who care to learn as much as possible before free avenues for learning go away.

 

[ygolo]

I bring up Robert Reich's Wealth and poverty class again:

Sorry for the weird capture

People have been moving from routine production to personal services and symbolic-analytic work. Symbolic-analytic work tends to produce more productivity and higher wages.

But some leadership on the left talks with glee about the tech industry becoming like manufacturing.

 

[ygolo]

Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein on the Daily Show:

 

[ygolo]

I think it is worth noting that more and more people have stories like this one:

Amish voter turnout fuels Trump’s victory in Pennsylvania amidst raw milk raid outrage | The Express Tribune

Amish voters in Pennsylvania turned out in unprecedented numbers, following a raw milk raid, boosting Trump’s win.

tribune.com.pk

I don't know enough about this issue to understand what needs to be done, but I have posted plenty about similar laws against my livelihood.

Call someone a slur, and they'll be annoyed and think you are bigoted against them.

But if you pass a law aimed at their livelihood, you will make a group of enemies for a long time.

I am not sure if the leadership on the left has internalized this problem they have. Economic populism doesn't seem like something the leadership cares about. If they let Sanders and AOC and others like him into the mainstream leadership, that would be different. Maybe their solutions have problems, too. But at least their main issues are the people's issues.

The right has acknowledged it as a problem for a long time. The solutions are fallacious and, I think, disingenuous. But economic populism has to be the core of the revived left.

 

[ygolo]

 

[ceecee]

I think it is worth noting that more and more people have stories like this one:

Amish voter turnout fuels Trump’s victory in Pennsylvania amidst raw milk raid outrage | The Express Tribune

Amish voters in Pennsylvania turned out in unprecedented numbers, following a raw milk raid, boosting Trump’s win.

tribune.com.pk

I don't know enough about this issue to understand what needs to be done, but I have posted plenty about similar laws against my livelihood.

Call someone a slur, and they'll be annoyed and think you are bigoted against them.

But if you pass a law aimed at their livelihood, you will make a group of enemies for a long time.

I am not sure if the leadership on the left has internalized this problem they have. Economic populism doesn't seem like something the leadership cares about. If they let Sanders and AOC and others like him into the mainstream leadership, that would be different. Maybe their solutions have problems, too. But at least their main issues are the people's issues.

The right has acknowledged it as a problem for a long time. The solutions are fallacious and, I think, disingenuous. But economic populism has to be the core of the revived left.

Ain't no war but the class war -is the only thing the right and center left fear. Why do you think they both ally against the left the way that they do? As a leftist, I'm all for economic populism but most voters still think AOC is a Marxist and don't think Trump is a white nationalist.

 

[ygolo]

Ain't no war but the class war -is the only thing the right and center left fear. Why do you think they both ally against the left the way that they do? As a leftist, I'm all for economic populism but most voters still think AOC is a Marxist and don't think Trump is a white nationalist.

But AOC continues to win her district despite a lot of her constituents swinging for Trump.

Most non-politically active folks will hear the word Marxist on ads occasionally, but also hear the fact that she actively sought opinions of them. She's a local politician, so she hasn't needed to scale her outreach to everyone yet.

The reverse happens with Trump. Non-politically active people will hear 'fascist' in ads, but hear through friends that he actively sought opinions from people like them. I think Musk's cuts are unavoidable for people to hear about.

That presents an opportunity for people who have local power to do things for the people locally. By 'things,' listening is a bare minimum. If you also become a firebrand, fighting for people, expressing the views heard while listening, that's a potential win. If you can then also get things done in an old school FDR, Tennessee Valley Authourity way, then you'll have staying power.

My fantasy league candidate for president is AOC with Sanders as VP, and people like Ezra Kline as advisors.

 

[ygolo]

A popular Democratic mayor making government work for people instead of against people:

 

[ygolo]

The populists on the left are starting to coalesce on the bureaucratic problem too. I'm seeing rays of hope.

 

[ceecee]

But AOC continues to win her district despite a lot of her constituents swinging for Trump.

Most non-politically active folks will hear the word Marxist on ads occasionally, but also hear the fact that she actively sought opinions of them. She's a local politician, so she hasn't needed to scale her outreach to everyone yet.

The reverse happens with Trump. Non-politically active people will hear 'fascist' in ads, but hear through friends that he actively sought opinions from people like them. I think Musk's cuts are unavoidable for people to hear about.

That presents an opportunity for people who have local power to do things for the people locally. By 'things,' listening is a bare minimum. If you also become a firebrand, fighting for people, expressing the views heard while listening, that's a potential win. If you can then also get things done in an old school FDR, Tennessee Valley Authourity way, then you'll have staying power.

My fantasy league candidate for president is AOC with Sanders as VP, and people like Ezra Kline as advisors.

Ezra Kline? This is a person that helped create Elon Musk as a public figure, and ardently defended the Iraq War way beyond and more enthusiastically than even Republicans? Hard fucking no for me as are all the ghoul journalists like Matty Yglesias or David Brooks or Brett Stephens -who have no business being anywhere near government in any capacity and I would have thought all the shithead Obama advisers that did nothing but go on to profit from pointless podcasts by people who are in no way interested in the American people or their wellbeing, let alone anyone else on the planet - would have made it very clear to everyone that these people suck and should never be given any kind of power.

I would much rather (and it's much more likely and winnable) that she run for Chuck Schumer's senate seat. NY politics ain't national politics - much different animal. I think Bernie is good where he is right now. But his rally was electric as they always are but Democrats will never acknowledge that 10K+ people at a high school gym in a red county in Michigan is indicative of the bigger mood of the people.

Here is a review of Ezra Kline's book by Matt Bruening from The People's Policy Project. https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2025/03/24/the-abundance-agenda/

 

[ygolo]

Ezra Kline? This is a person that helped create Elon Musk as a public figure, and ardently defended the Iraq War way beyond and more enthusiastically than even Republicans? Hard fucking no for me as are all the ghoul journalists like Matty Yglesias or David Brooks or Brett Stephens -who have no business being anywhere near government in any capacity and I would have thought all the shithead Obama advisers that did nothing but go on to profit from pointless podcasts by people who are in no way interested in the American people or their wellbeing, let alone anyone else on the planet - would have made it very clear to everyone that these people suck and should never be given any kind of power.

I would much rather (and it's much more likely and winnable) that she run for Chuck Schumer's senate seat. NY politics ain't national politics - much different animal. I think Bernie is good where he is right now. But his rally was electric as they always are but Democrats will never acknowledge that 10K+ people at a high school gym in a red county in Michigan is indicative of the bigger mood of the people.

Here is a review of Ezra Kline's book by Matt Bruening from The People's Policy Project. https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2025/03/24/the-abundance-agenda/

People’s Policy Project - Bias and Credibility

LEFT BIAS These media sources are moderate to strongly biased toward liberal causes through story selection and/or political affiliation. They may

mediabiasfactcheck.com

I'm aware of the reaction from parts of the left to his book, and others like it. In fact, that's part of the impetus for "Stop Criminalizing Upward Mobility."

Are you claiming that there's no housing shortage?

Are you claiming that poor and disabled people don't rely on mass transit, and there's a shortage of it?

Are you claiming that there's adequate rural broadband, and no digital divide?

Are you claiming that the loss of ability to make microchips by humanity is not apocalyptic, given our current reliance on it?

Jon Stewart has a section with Klein on one particular NOFO, where there's a 14 step and years long process to get to the starting line for a project. This sort of process is typical.

Projections also show if people move out of the blue cities and states, after the 2030 census, the Democrats can win every single state that Harris won, and the Blue wall and still lose the election.

Problems like this may not be why the Democrats lost the electoral college, but it's why they lost the popular vote.

My personal experience, along with poling data, is that the Asian immigrant population has shifted away from the Democrats fairly permanently.

They came to the US for opportunity. Many moved away from Communism working exactly as it's supposed to in states of their countries.

They moved away from the red tape, and the "pay me to get through the process," bureaucracy that it creates.

 

[ceecee]

People’s Policy Project - Bias and Credibility

LEFT BIAS These media sources are moderate to strongly biased toward liberal causes through story selection and/or political affiliation. They may

mediabiasfactcheck.com

I'm aware of the reaction from parts of the left to his book, and others like it. In fact, that's part of the impetus for "Stop Criminalizing Upward Mobility."

Are you claiming that there's no housing shortage?

Are you claiming that poor and disabled people don't rely on mass transit, and there's a shortage of it?

Are you claiming that there's adequate rural broadband, and no digital divide?

Are you claiming that the loss of ability to make microchips by humanity is not apocalyptic, given our current reliance on it?

Jon Stewart has a section with Klein on one particular NOFO, where there's a 14 step and years long process to get to the starting line for a project. This sort of process is typical.

Projections also show if people move out of the blue cities and states, after the 2030 census, the Democrats can win every single state that Harris won, and the Blue wall and still lose the election.

Problems like this may not be why the Democrats lost the electoral college, but it's why they lost the popular vote.

My personal experience, along with poling data, is that the Asian immigrant population has shifted away from the Democrats fairly permanently.

They came to the US for opportunity. Many moved away from Communism working exactly as it's supposed to in states of their countries.

They moved away from the red tape, and the "pay me to get through the process," bureaucracy that it creates.

Where did I say any of the above? Ever? I don't think Ezra Kline or MANY of the other warmongering neocon "journalists" should never have any kind of advisory role in any administration. Bill Kristol, Max Boot, John Podhoretz, in addition to the ones I already mentioned.

You don't think the US is filled with pay me to get through the process bureaucracy? It's coming. Either way, all of these conversations are pointless now. There is no point to strategize about Democrats winning elections or housing or microchips or healthcare or anything else. I realize it's incredibly difficult to imagine but Trump and the fash GOP isn't going anywhere. That chance is long passed.

 

[ygolo]

Where did I say any of the above? Ever? I don't think Ezra Kline or MANY of the other warmongering neocon "journalists" should never have any kind of advisory role in any administration. Bill Kristol, Max Boot, John Podhoretz, in addition to the ones I already mentioned.

You don't think the US is filled with pay me to get through the process bureaucracy? It's coming. Either way, all of these conversations are pointless now. There is no point to strategize about Democrats winning elections or housing or microchips or healthcare or anything else. I realize it's incredibly difficult to imagine but Trump and the fash GOP isn't going anywhere. That chance is long passed.

The article posted did diminish the shortages.

I'm not a fatalist. I think the Democrats have a chance at winning the midterms.

But, it's not about strategizing to win. I think it's about the soul of the Democratic party.

The Bluest states and the Bluest cities, have the worst red tape, and the most "pay me so I can get you through it."

They hold the clubs of structural economic violence, and refuse to see themselves as the bullies they are.

That's the big part of the reason the bigger, badder, bully fascists were brought in.