hyperplanes.bsky.social
9,361 posts
800 followers
1,589 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
comment in response to
post
Cincinnati buses aren't frequent but it is actually geographically one of the most comprehensive systems in the US it's wild that Greyhound did this
comment in response to
post
ok but can you tell Greyhound to please move their Cincinnati bus stop back to a location that is actually accessible by city bus
comment in response to
post
Los Angeles, CA -
A pink power ranger dances alongside a Mexican flag. Curfew starts in one hour.
comment in response to
post
In ancient rome, there was no system for keeping track of who was entering or leaving in rome, but there was a detailed system, the census, for keeping track of citizens. But this was open: any adult male in rome on census day could register and become a citizen (if they were not someone's slave)
comment in response to
post
walls served two purposes. One is literal military defense, the other was as a kind of legal jurisdictional boundary. You could enter a mesopotamian walled city just fine, inside the wall the ruler will adjudicate a property dispute. Outside the wall he will not. But you are in general able to enter
comment in response to
post
did Hengist and Horsa have work visas
comment in response to
post
Idk how you get the press to give Trump this kind of treatment but it is in fact possible for "Trump is a failure" message to stick for four whole years
comment in response to
post
we're all vegetarians for the foreseeable future, I guess
comment in response to
post
this isn't true but what if it were
comment in response to
post
If Newsom is this generation's Churchill then I'm Cruella de Vil
comment in response to
post
Probably the one in your town, particularly if this is a republican district
comment in response to
post
in contrast to the current thing where they aggressively featherbed a handful of public contracts
comment in response to
post
mining is separate from this. When you buy land in the west you don't get mineral rights, the government keeps those and charges for it separately
comment in response to
post
it's pretty much all ranches for bison and cows, and things that support ranches for bison and cows
comment in response to
post
This is why the homestead acts made the land free, and it's still basically free we just don't tell settlers anymore that in the plains you can grow ears of corn the size of trees
comment in response to
post
I occasionally see disbelief by coastal folks at the dismally small revenues the Bureau makes from these federal lands but the reality is that the monetizable market value of a large percentage of the west is about zero.
comment in response to
post
The reason think tanks don't put out reports saying medicare for all might be almost free is they generally assume medicare would increase rates to providers in any scenario where private insurance ceases to exist. Which, idk, maybe
comment in response to
post
healthcare is currently a huge expense for employers, if everyone gets medicare, competition will drive wages up, quite a lot, which mechanistically increases tax revenue (because employer insurance is currently tax deductible). Medicare is way cheaper than ESI, so there's room to work with here
comment in response to
post
If everyone gets medicare, and medicare continues to pay current rates to providers, then a tax equal to what employers currently spend on healthcare would easily pay for medicare for all. But! Do we even need that?
comment in response to
post
I think we absolutely should raise taxes on the rich in a variety of ways but I react negatively to "if we taxed these five guys a lot we could have free ___" type arguments because it is both false undermines the case for the kinds of big taxes we actually need for social services
comment in response to
post
What you could do instead is take the stocks, put them in a sovereign wealth fund, and manage it to maximize the annual returns the government gets from it. But you're talking about a lot less revenue, and this is economically very similar to the kinds of corporate and capital taxes we have already
comment in response to
post
The problem is not much different whether you take the stocks directly or force billionaires to sell and pay taxes in dollars. If you want all that revenue right away, you're going to be doing fire sales
comment in response to
post
if you're doing this to all billionaires at once the problem is compounded. Who is buying the shares? In the long term you absolutely could have a rebalancing where normies own more stocks, billionaires own less. But there's a short term period where you're selling stocks for fractions on the dollar
comment in response to
post
He could sell the shares but they're only going to raise a fraction of his hypothetical wealth, because stock prices go down when you dump them on the market all at once.
comment in response to
post
a billionaire with $400B in wealth is going to have a (relatively) small bank account. The wealth is in the form of ownership stakes in various companies. Like if you asked Elon to pay a one-time $300B tax it's doubtful he'd have literally any possible way to pay it.
comment in response to
post
kind of the opposite situation for most cars. In this market totaling a crappy 2004 toyota can get you a surprisingly fine payout
comment in response to
post
a common clause in insurance coverage is that they will pay up to the value of the car. Seems to me that this means you're effectively kind of uninsured for a serious accident, insurance will neither pay the cost to repair nor give you anywhere near what you paid
comment in response to
post
there absolutely are people who lost loved ones to covid and are sad or angry at things without realizing what they're really upset about is their loved one's death. Everything is just worse without them, can be hard to recognize when it's happening to you
comment in response to
post
I used to see one around my neighborhood from time to time, it sort of disappeared around the time JD Vance (who lives here) entered secret service protection so I wonder
comment in response to
post
being an avid supporter of Yglesias is fine but I mean come on who wouldn't prefer this coat or tuxedo I made
comment in response to
post
It's wild to me that the business model works at all. No one will buy a hand-made custom fitted merino wool shirt from me but they'll give Yglesias the same amount of money for some blog posts