As a worker oriented progressive I found a lot to like in the recommended reading. There was in it an unmentioned subtext. And of course some confounding attempts at rationalizing alt-reality. The unmentioned subtext was the absolute poison of Libertarian ideology and neoliberalism as manifested by Friedman and Chicago school economists. The notion that the free market solves everything is why we have the tech bros raping and pillaging our government and are suffer the externalities of their ill-considered and unregulated technologies foisted on us. Underlying the free market dogma are the dual notions of 'greed is good' and of maximizing profit. We now have gargantuan corporations with more rights than women, whose legally required mandate is simply and only, maximize profit. Additionally, the finance sector grows like the cancer it is, draining its host of the vitality it needs to live, offering nothing in return beyond its own continued growth.
I was pleased to see the reference to Marx and at least some attempt to clarify what his theory was about and the fact that what has been called communism is in no way related to Marx's economic theory. Marx saw a possible communism as the absolute endgame of capitalism, when so much capital had been built up that private property almost made no sense. IE, everybody is wealthy. No country is remotely close to that. Certainly not any of the benighted "communist regimes". They are authoritarian regimes only. That they call themselves communist does not make them communist, any more than Libertarians calling themselves conservative does not make them conservative. Marx theorized communism might come about as a natural consequence of the success of capitalism. That is still an unanswered hypothesis.
Related to the prioritizing of profit is another insight of Marx. The basic notion of profit as worker value not paid to workers is critically important and should be made very clear. That is what capitalism maximizes and what capitalist cheerleaders fail to address. I understand the importance of the portion of profit that is reinvested for a business's growth and to some degree as motivation for an owner to take on the challenge of running a business. But that is in the context of small business. Most giant corporations don't have individual owners. (a very few do) So their mission is simply make profit. Not to make anything good or consider the possible adverse consequences of what they make or do. That, my conservative friends, is why government regulation is essential to our literal survival among corporate monsters.
I don't propose ten policies to make tech "family friendly". (and in that article was a retarded slam on EV "mandates". The "choice" to burn oil as an individual preference is to rob others of the choice to have a clean or even survivable environment.) Instead, I propose imposing voter will on corporate existence in the first place. Corporate charters must rationalize the existence of a proposed corporation in terms of how it promotes family and community and general wellbeing and prosperity. It must address in detail the possible externalities and how bad actors might use what it produces and how it will prevent those events. It can incorporate if it meets the actual needs of citizens and must disband if it fails to do so.
Enough with the "deep state" and Reaganism. Government is the solution. Oren knows and says as much. Democracy is the solution. Corruption of our government by Corporate and big money interests is the actual deep state and the clear and present danger to our nation. Musk arbitrarily firing Federal workers is literally the opposite of what should be happening. Voters, through Our government, should be demanding accountability from corporations, including Musk's.
Now we get to the alt-reality of Trump apologists. The article comparing Trump's inauguration speech to one of Biden's speeches was a slap in the face to reality. Just like Steve Bannon's interview by Ross Douthat in the NYTimes, there seems to be willful ignorance of what is plainly in front of us. Trump has no principled "workers first" or families first philosophy. Saying some stuff that sounds that way gains him personal power and wealth. That's the only reason he says it. He also made promises and overtures to the finance sector and the oil sector and any sources of money he could find, including foreign, that very much do not put families and workers first. He also says things that monomaniacal nevermind-what-Jesus-says so called christians will eat up. For votes, for power and money. Trump Bibles for Christs sake!?! Outlandish hucksterism. As outlandish as Sam Altman's ShamWow guy imitation. I love that comparison. But Trump is going to let these psychos foist AI on us all with zero consideration and planning for easily foreseeable bad results. Just like the freedom of crypto, for criminals and money laundering. I would put the hammer down on AI for anything other than research. Trump will let it put the hammer down on families. Because money.
That aside, some very positive economic progressive, uh I mean "conservative" nudge nudge wink wink thinking.
Its hard to get a sense of Oren Cass, for example, at the bottom of this post he recommends this essay Aaron Renn linked to here https://commonplace.org/2025/01/28/red-states-rich-in-votes-poor-in-power/ But this essay is ahistorical, erroneous, and misleading because as treats the current hub-and-spoke system as an inevitable, natural phenomenon rather than the product of the forces of political and economic centralization. While NYC has indeed been the largest city since the first census in 1790, population size alone does not inherently dictate economic dominance or cultural centrality in the way you imply. Historically, the USA had multiple thriving regional hubs with significant economic, political, and cultural autonomy, fostered by decentralized governance and localized financial systems. The concentration of hubs and the contrived number of them today result from decisions made over the past several decades: including but not limited to the elimination of internal capital flow inhibitors, the centralization of federal authority, and the financialization of the economy. This process hollowed out local and regional economic ecosystems, contriving power towards a small number of dominant cities. Its not something we just have to accept as the natural order; it’s a structural outcome that can be altered through policy choices that restore regional autonomy, diversify economic centers, and reverse the centralization trends that have artificially contrived this situation.
Or look at the substance of Oren Cass’ essay here, he fails to mention how we had a highly successful and adaptable decentralized education system prior to the post war consolidation that not only accomplishing its base tasks very well but also played important roles in, among other things, error correction and testing in regards to knowledge, yet he strongly implies not only 1) a continuation of our deeply centrally controlled one with near zero variability and 2) that almost all human beings in the country will continue to have not ability to contest or even comment upon policies and decisions.
Oren, I can't thank you enough for these posts. Your critique on education here is spot-on, like all your comments on the AI fad. And your suggested readings have been tremendous--particularly "The Boys at the End of History," which is a priceless brief x-ray of our upcoming generations of young men and women as well. Congratulations and keep up the good work!
It would be nice if there was a national educational minimum standard at several points through the primary education journey to ensure children had enough basic reading and math skills to handle what will come their way in adult life. Currently, there are a LOT of college educated people in this country that can't do basic mathematics.
You’re nailing it lately on these AI articles. Elon and the rest of Silicon Valley are one trick frauds. They care about their projects, not the health of a people and nation.
"The problem is that the legal profession trains people to think in a very funny way. This gets lauded as 'thinking like a lawyer' but, outside the profession, this is usually a terrible way to think. The hallmark of thinking like a lawyer is the belief that whoever can craft the most clever argument gets to define reality. In the adversarial process of litigation, that turns out mostly to be true. If you are the better lawyer, the judge will side with you, and your client wins. The contract says what you say it says. But when it comes to democratic politics, this is fairly insane and leads to pathological behavior."
I have heard Antony Blinken described as "Bibi's lawyer in Washington DC".
I there any chance that anti-zionism is mistaken for anti-semitism by well-meaning people? Does America really need to defend the Last Colony on Earth to the death, of all Gazans?
There is no question that capitalism creates tremendous wealth. The only question is if that wealth is distributed in relation to the contribution each participant has made.
Its hard to get a sense of Oren Cass, for example, at the bottom of this post he recommends this essay Aaron Renn linked to here https://commonplace.org/2025/01/28/red-states-rich-in-votes-poor-in-power/ But this essay is ahistorical, erroneous, and misleading because as treats the current hub-and-spoke system as an inevitable, natural phenomenon rather than the product of the forces of political and economic centralization. While NYC has indeed been the largest city since the first census in 1790, population size alone does not inherently dictate economic dominance or cultural centrality in the way you imply. Historically, the USA had multiple thriving regional hubs with significant economic, political, and cultural autonomy, fostered by decentralized governance and localized financial systems. The concentration of hubs and the contrived number of them today result from decisions made over the past several decades: including but not limited to the elimination of internal capital flow inhibitors, the centralization of federal authority, and the financialization of the economy. This process hollowed out local and regional economic ecosystems, contriving power towards a small number of dominant cities. Its not something we just have to accept as the natural order; it’s a structural outcome that can be altered through policy choices that restore regional autonomy, diversify economic centers, and reverse the centralization trends that have artificially contrived this situation.
Or look at the substance of Oren Cass’ essay here, he fails to mention how we had a highly successful and adaptable decentralized education system prior to the post war consolidation that not only accomplishing its base tasks very well but also played important roles in, among other things, error correction and testing in regards to knowledge, yet he strongly implies not only 1) a continuation of our deeply centrally controlled one with near zero variability and 2) that almost all human beings in the country will continue to have not ability to contest or even comment upon policies and decisions.
It's referencing a Bushism! From Wikipedia's list (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushism): "'Rarely is the question asked: is our children learning?' – Florence, South Carolina, January 11, 2000."
As a worker oriented progressive I found a lot to like in the recommended reading. There was in it an unmentioned subtext. And of course some confounding attempts at rationalizing alt-reality. The unmentioned subtext was the absolute poison of Libertarian ideology and neoliberalism as manifested by Friedman and Chicago school economists. The notion that the free market solves everything is why we have the tech bros raping and pillaging our government and are suffer the externalities of their ill-considered and unregulated technologies foisted on us. Underlying the free market dogma are the dual notions of 'greed is good' and of maximizing profit. We now have gargantuan corporations with more rights than women, whose legally required mandate is simply and only, maximize profit. Additionally, the finance sector grows like the cancer it is, draining its host of the vitality it needs to live, offering nothing in return beyond its own continued growth.
I was pleased to see the reference to Marx and at least some attempt to clarify what his theory was about and the fact that what has been called communism is in no way related to Marx's economic theory. Marx saw a possible communism as the absolute endgame of capitalism, when so much capital had been built up that private property almost made no sense. IE, everybody is wealthy. No country is remotely close to that. Certainly not any of the benighted "communist regimes". They are authoritarian regimes only. That they call themselves communist does not make them communist, any more than Libertarians calling themselves conservative does not make them conservative. Marx theorized communism might come about as a natural consequence of the success of capitalism. That is still an unanswered hypothesis.
Related to the prioritizing of profit is another insight of Marx. The basic notion of profit as worker value not paid to workers is critically important and should be made very clear. That is what capitalism maximizes and what capitalist cheerleaders fail to address. I understand the importance of the portion of profit that is reinvested for a business's growth and to some degree as motivation for an owner to take on the challenge of running a business. But that is in the context of small business. Most giant corporations don't have individual owners. (a very few do) So their mission is simply make profit. Not to make anything good or consider the possible adverse consequences of what they make or do. That, my conservative friends, is why government regulation is essential to our literal survival among corporate monsters.
I don't propose ten policies to make tech "family friendly". (and in that article was a retarded slam on EV "mandates". The "choice" to burn oil as an individual preference is to rob others of the choice to have a clean or even survivable environment.) Instead, I propose imposing voter will on corporate existence in the first place. Corporate charters must rationalize the existence of a proposed corporation in terms of how it promotes family and community and general wellbeing and prosperity. It must address in detail the possible externalities and how bad actors might use what it produces and how it will prevent those events. It can incorporate if it meets the actual needs of citizens and must disband if it fails to do so.
Enough with the "deep state" and Reaganism. Government is the solution. Oren knows and says as much. Democracy is the solution. Corruption of our government by Corporate and big money interests is the actual deep state and the clear and present danger to our nation. Musk arbitrarily firing Federal workers is literally the opposite of what should be happening. Voters, through Our government, should be demanding accountability from corporations, including Musk's.
Now we get to the alt-reality of Trump apologists. The article comparing Trump's inauguration speech to one of Biden's speeches was a slap in the face to reality. Just like Steve Bannon's interview by Ross Douthat in the NYTimes, there seems to be willful ignorance of what is plainly in front of us. Trump has no principled "workers first" or families first philosophy. Saying some stuff that sounds that way gains him personal power and wealth. That's the only reason he says it. He also made promises and overtures to the finance sector and the oil sector and any sources of money he could find, including foreign, that very much do not put families and workers first. He also says things that monomaniacal nevermind-what-Jesus-says so called christians will eat up. For votes, for power and money. Trump Bibles for Christs sake!?! Outlandish hucksterism. As outlandish as Sam Altman's ShamWow guy imitation. I love that comparison. But Trump is going to let these psychos foist AI on us all with zero consideration and planning for easily foreseeable bad results. Just like the freedom of crypto, for criminals and money laundering. I would put the hammer down on AI for anything other than research. Trump will let it put the hammer down on families. Because money.
That aside, some very positive economic progressive, uh I mean "conservative" nudge nudge wink wink thinking.
Its hard to get a sense of Oren Cass, for example, at the bottom of this post he recommends this essay Aaron Renn linked to here https://commonplace.org/2025/01/28/red-states-rich-in-votes-poor-in-power/ But this essay is ahistorical, erroneous, and misleading because as treats the current hub-and-spoke system as an inevitable, natural phenomenon rather than the product of the forces of political and economic centralization. While NYC has indeed been the largest city since the first census in 1790, population size alone does not inherently dictate economic dominance or cultural centrality in the way you imply. Historically, the USA had multiple thriving regional hubs with significant economic, political, and cultural autonomy, fostered by decentralized governance and localized financial systems. The concentration of hubs and the contrived number of them today result from decisions made over the past several decades: including but not limited to the elimination of internal capital flow inhibitors, the centralization of federal authority, and the financialization of the economy. This process hollowed out local and regional economic ecosystems, contriving power towards a small number of dominant cities. Its not something we just have to accept as the natural order; it’s a structural outcome that can be altered through policy choices that restore regional autonomy, diversify economic centers, and reverse the centralization trends that have artificially contrived this situation.
Or look at the substance of Oren Cass’ essay here, he fails to mention how we had a highly successful and adaptable decentralized education system prior to the post war consolidation that not only accomplishing its base tasks very well but also played important roles in, among other things, error correction and testing in regards to knowledge, yet he strongly implies not only 1) a continuation of our deeply centrally controlled one with near zero variability and 2) that almost all human beings in the country will continue to have not ability to contest or even comment upon policies and decisions.
In short, who really is Oren Cass?
Oren, I can't thank you enough for these posts. Your critique on education here is spot-on, like all your comments on the AI fad. And your suggested readings have been tremendous--particularly "The Boys at the End of History," which is a priceless brief x-ray of our upcoming generations of young men and women as well. Congratulations and keep up the good work!
It would be nice if there was a national educational minimum standard at several points through the primary education journey to ensure children had enough basic reading and math skills to handle what will come their way in adult life. Currently, there are a LOT of college educated people in this country that can't do basic mathematics.
You’re nailing it lately on these AI articles. Elon and the rest of Silicon Valley are one trick frauds. They care about their projects, not the health of a people and nation.
"The problem is that the legal profession trains people to think in a very funny way. This gets lauded as 'thinking like a lawyer' but, outside the profession, this is usually a terrible way to think. The hallmark of thinking like a lawyer is the belief that whoever can craft the most clever argument gets to define reality. In the adversarial process of litigation, that turns out mostly to be true. If you are the better lawyer, the judge will side with you, and your client wins. The contract says what you say it says. But when it comes to democratic politics, this is fairly insane and leads to pathological behavior."
I have heard Antony Blinken described as "Bibi's lawyer in Washington DC".
I there any chance that anti-zionism is mistaken for anti-semitism by well-meaning people? Does America really need to defend the Last Colony on Earth to the death, of all Gazans?
There is no question that capitalism creates tremendous wealth. The only question is if that wealth is distributed in relation to the contribution each participant has made.
Mike? what???
Its hard to get a sense of Oren Cass, for example, at the bottom of this post he recommends this essay Aaron Renn linked to here https://commonplace.org/2025/01/28/red-states-rich-in-votes-poor-in-power/ But this essay is ahistorical, erroneous, and misleading because as treats the current hub-and-spoke system as an inevitable, natural phenomenon rather than the product of the forces of political and economic centralization. While NYC has indeed been the largest city since the first census in 1790, population size alone does not inherently dictate economic dominance or cultural centrality in the way you imply. Historically, the USA had multiple thriving regional hubs with significant economic, political, and cultural autonomy, fostered by decentralized governance and localized financial systems. The concentration of hubs and the contrived number of them today result from decisions made over the past several decades: including but not limited to the elimination of internal capital flow inhibitors, the centralization of federal authority, and the financialization of the economy. This process hollowed out local and regional economic ecosystems, contriving power towards a small number of dominant cities. Its not something we just have to accept as the natural order; it’s a structural outcome that can be altered through policy choices that restore regional autonomy, diversify economic centers, and reverse the centralization trends that have artificially contrived this situation.
Or look at the substance of Oren Cass’ essay here, he fails to mention how we had a highly successful and adaptable decentralized education system prior to the post war consolidation that not only accomplishing its base tasks very well but also played important roles in, among other things, error correction and testing in regards to knowledge, yet he strongly implies not only 1) a continuation of our deeply centrally controlled one with near zero variability and 2) that almost all human beings in the country will continue to have not ability to contest or even comment upon policies and decisions.
In short, who really is Oren Cass?
It’s a lot easier to understand people when you don’t try to fit the entire world into a red box or blue box.
I believe it should be "Are our children ...", not "is"
Isn’t that the point? <satire>
It's referencing a Bushism! From Wikipedia's list (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushism): "'Rarely is the question asked: is our children learning?' – Florence, South Carolina, January 11, 2000."