“We are mean-spirited little monkeys, capable of moments of great grace and kindness…”
Turns out our little friend is not a preprogrammed automaton but an unpredictable creature of “unexpected depths”, a complex and strategic decision-maker capable of “changing its mind” in response to failure. For example, Stentor roeseli “can dodge, duck or flee” to avoid a threat, alternating these evasive maneuvers in a seemingly random manner until the threat is gone. Here’s a nice illustration …
Economists typically use tax data to determine income distribution in the US, but their results vary widely…Why such a range of estimates? It’s complicated but I’ll try to simplify the issues without misrepresenting them.
Good government seeks to foster conditions conducive to the well-being of its people. This mission is not all that different from that of a parent: provide a secure base while encouraging the child to leave the zone of safety to explore the world. There’s still a secure base to return to in case you lose your way - a solid safety net - but you’re free to wander, experiment, fail, get up again, and pursue happiness on your own terms.
What is a reasonable, humane and safe shelter? At a minimum, a shelter where conditions are conducive to restful sleep: quiet, supervised, with storage space and a place to keep pets. Also, sufficiently clean and uncrowded to protect shelter residents from contagious diseases and criminal victimization. Ideally, all shelters would allow a stay of at least a week.
Permanent housing is the ultimate goal for all the unsheltered homeless. And in some places, it may be possible to quickly provide very cheap housing for all unsheltered homeless in the area. But these are places that don’t have much of an unsheltered homeless population in the first place, because very cheap housing is already available, such as trailer or RV parks in rural areas. Unsheltered homelessness is mostly a problem in coastal cities where it is expensive to build and live. The unsheltered still need a safe place to stay while they wait for permanent housing to open up. Which can take quite a while, because…
Guaranteed shelter would pay for itself because it would greatly reduce the costs associated with unsheltered living, e.g., costs related to medical emergencies, criminal justice involvement, law enforcement, security, clean up, property repair, public health, etc.
Per the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Bell v. Boise, public camping cannot be banned unless shelter is available - which means public camping can be banned when shelter is available. According to an ACLU legal primer, “It is possible that a city could have enough shelter resources that the homeless population truly has a choice to sleep elsewhere. When reasonable alternatives to outdoor camping exist, enforcement of anti-camping ordinances may not be unconstitutional.” [My italics]
For the record, there is nothing in the UN Report about “mass extinctions” or large parts of the planet becoming “uninhabitable” unless we abide by the Paris Agreement (check for yourself, here). And despite the scary introduction, the UN report’s specific recommendations are quite doable without “fundamental structural changes”. Here are the main recommendations:
While the top personal income tax rate is quite high in many of these rich European countries (e.g., 57% in Sweden), the top rate kicks in at relatively low levels of income. For instance: under $100,000 for all the Nordic countries….
The private sector can’t do everything – we need government, regulations, and taxes. But why are government agencies so encumbered by bureaucratic inefficiency? Here are some possible reasons:
The Promise of Science: “…truth [will emerge] as a large number of flawed and limited minds battle it out.” (Jonathan Haidt).
… It all depends on what else is happening in a country, especially related to other indicators of well-being. For example, if high inequality is coupled with high poverty and low social mobility, then we have three problems. If high inequality is coupled with low poverty and high social mobility, it’s not clear to me that we have a problem.
As if the example of other countries’ healthcare systems weren’t enough for ideas on how to fix the US system, the Urban Institute recently released a report comparing six multi-payer health reforms with two single-payer reform options, including Medicare for All. Care of the Commonwealth Fund, here is a nice summary of the eight possible reforms…
According to the researchers, these emotional reactions are understandable in the context of human evolution. Human emotions evolved to help our ancestors survive and reproduce during a time when conditions were brutal. Emotional reactions served to reinforce behaviors necessary for individual and group survival: warm fuzzies for individuals who demonstrated a willingness to put in the effort, reciprocate, and cooperate; and anger for individuals deemed lazy, selfish or uncooperative.
The most common hate crime bias motivations are, in order: anti-African American, anti-sexual orientation, anti-Jewish, anti-white, anti-Latino, and anti-Islamic. Per the following table, the bias mix shifted in 2018…
Cross-cultural studies have found that most people agree with the following: 1) Distribute resources equally, when need and merit are equal and the rules allow it; 2) Give more to the needy at some threshold of neediness, regardless of merit; 3) If there are agreed upon rules, and resources are allocated unequally based on these rules, that’s okay; and, 4) Merit is partly based on considerations of effort, both quantity and quality.
Why is it taking longer for today’s under-40 set (aka millennials) to accumulate significant wealth? Mostly because they’re delaying marriage and home ownership, which is partly a result of financial constraints and partly a matter of social change. Compared to previous generations of young adults, millennials are staying in college longer, have higher levels of student debt, and face tighter mortgage lending standards. They also tend to live in cities with nonoptimal housing markets.
According to the just released Responding to Rising Seas: OECD Country Approaches to Tackling Coastal Risks, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and United Kingdom all have coastal adaptation plans in place.
… income and life expectancy have more to do with how we evaluate our lives and less to do with how we feel on a day-to-day basis…freedom to make life choices and a sense of community make us feel good…corruption, lack of social support, and lack of freedom make us feel lousy.