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i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 2d

The antimonopoly left, like so many analysts in the Marxist tradition, have identified a real problem and real historical developments. The problem is, as always, with their proposed prescriptions for the problem.

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i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 2d

Even if you blew up RealPage, even your grandma's dog knows Zillow and Craigslist exist now and will price accordingly. The former system didn't actually produce housing, but it did allow for "good deals" and the absence of these "good deals" has very nontrivially immiserated the precariat.

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i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 2d

Pricing software has severely exacerbated the crisis, because until a decade or two ago, the market was wildly inefficient, with countless unsophisticated landlords undercutting the market via legacy rents or basic ignorance. Online services have obliterated these "good deals" via efficient pricing.

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i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 2d

It's not "timeless", but it's about as old as scarcity. Between the invention of agriculture and the Industrial Revolution the vast majority of people alive were peasants who had to dance for their landlords whether it was under the Assyrian Empire or the Qing Dynasty.

i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

There can and will be a immigration backlash if the next Democratic president simply ends immigration enforcement in the United States.

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i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

Please do.

i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

Democrats should take seriously Constitutional amendment to end presidential immunity. Frankly it would be easy to do if the Democrats won the presidency: simply have the President announce he will do wildly illegal shit - maybe personally shrink the court with an M4 - and get the votes in.

i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

The reason it's hard to prosecute these corrupt deals is that nobody is dumb enough to write down the deal. Tim Cook got Trump a 24-karat solid gold iPhone, not because he arranged a swap for political favors, but because everybody understands what's going on without saying anything.

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i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

The whole point is to talk up how reasonable you are so you can pretend to be shocked when they stab you in the face and hope the American people will be shocked along with you.

i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

People don't think that Democrats are normal on immigration because they hear memes about undocumented immigration surging under Biden, which happen to be true.

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i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

shouldn't the median worker in a region be "working class"

i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

The problem isn't technical. The problem is that these newspapers, like gyms, make most of their money off of guys who bought subscriptions and then only use them twice a year. Selling articles for 25 cents a pop blows that revenue stream to kingdom come.

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i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

What Klein is worried about is not the fact that Trump is popular, but that he's gotten it into his head that Democrats are unpopular, out of touch elitist snobs that voters hate and always will.

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i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

In Asia persons caught running media piracy sites have gotten multiyear prison terms and it's not considered even slightly controversial because they take intellectual property a lot more seriously than we do.

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i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

Literally every piece of IP is available for free to pretty much everyone with an internet connection.

I don't think the sentence for pirating a library's worth of content should be a decade in prison. I'm not certain it should even be six months in prison. But that latter sentence isn't "absurd."

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i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

If someone simply thought intellectual property law should not exist, sure, then that person would certainly agree that the prosecution was highly unethical.

I don't think most people agree with that.

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i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

If I decide to give away all my stuff today it still doesn't mean prosecuting the guy who stole my bike last year was absurd and pointless.

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i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

Sure, there are limits to what can be consented to under the law, and if Mr. Beast violated them he should go to jail. But it's not clear to me that applies in this case.

i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

There are certain things society agrees that people cannot consent to in exchange for money, such as: death, mutilation, organ removal, long-term servitude, and in some jurisdictions sex.

"Do something scary (but ultimately safe) for a few hours" is generally not one of them.

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i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

If it's not safe (as other, comparative risk-assuming activities such as ATVs) then Mr. Beast should go to jail.

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i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

I absolutely do not care what a bunch of people you've imagined up care about me.

i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

There are certain things society agrees that people cannot consent to in exchange for money, such as: death, mutilation, organ removal, long-term servitude, and in some jurisdictions sex.

"Do something scary (but ultimately safe) for a few hours" is generally not one of them.

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i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

I don't enjoy it, but if I were paid to do BDSM stuff, I wouldn't find that to be unethical behavior.

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i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

I am having an argument on the internet. Nobody does that has a life, you included.

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i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

I don't enjoy inflicting suffering on non-consenting persons, so no.

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i dreamt a dream, @adistantdream.bsky.social · 9d

Everybody alive who doesn't have fuck-you money lives in a constant state of coercion. That's just life.

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