when “abundance” is framed (as it is here) as good-government reform of the public sector so the public sector can do more faster cheaper, it is not controversial on the left.

but when “abundance” is framed as govt reform to make way for more, faster private sector activity, it is controversial on the left, bc many of us see the private sector as having grown extractive, predatory, and do not see incautious unfettering of that machine as a source of broad prosperity.

https://jacobin.com/2025/11/klein-abundance-mamdani-sanders-socialism

[new draft post] Running on democracy hasn't been tried https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2025/11/18/running-on-democracy-hasnt-been-tried/index.html

github gone down. (not the website part, ssh authentication is down for me.) i'm ashamed i depend upon it. but boy do i!

from #AddisonDelMastro https://thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/are-roommates-the-answer-the-housing

“That is, rational choice modeling is just a structured way to make up a guy… it seems reasonable to think of economic rationality as a compression scheme.” @akhilrao https://akhilrao.org/blog/2025/11/16/Building-rational-surrogates/

Britain is an object lesson in how poorly arranged democracies can succumb to destructive positive feedback. The people who ensure a stagnant economy with Brexit enjoy political dividends by blaming immigrants for the consequences of that very stagnation.

(US democracy is arranged at least as poorly.)

This post intentionally left blank.

@admitsWrongIfProven@qoto.org all your desires fulfilled, i guess.

Scarcity and want are finally fully defeated as artificial intelligence technologies automate the greater fool.

the overfamiliar elite networked social scene of the Epstein e-mail dump is not mostly about the girls and sex. similar scenes very much continue.

one perspective is great, it was only the abuse that was bad. another perspective is the abuse was emblematic of the corruption of this kind of scene.

the antitrump coalition used to fancy itself institutionalist, but revelations of the vile personal behavior of the people who captain once favored institutions, and the willingness of those institutions to deform themselves to curry favor with the new order is undermining that i think.

there is no hypocrisy under supremacy. a double standard is, from a supremicist perspective, simply correct.

it’s like “american beauty” meets “being there”.

the self-storage industry is a microcosm of what’s wrong with America.

ok, ratcheting rates on stuck customers, auctioning their shit if they don’t pay, is icky. we’re not commenting on whether it’s ethical. but it’s legal, it’s profitable, we’re best off if it becomes widespread standard practice.

https://slate.com/business/2025/01/self-storage-price-increases-28-day-billing-unit-sales-facility-managment.html

@neilk for a while!

[new draft post] Real purchasing power over time is not economic welfare over time https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2025/11/12/real-purchasing-power-over-time-is-not-economic-welfare-over-time/index.html

a liberal democracy that doesn’t treat its public like mere rats seeking cheese would make of itself that shining city on the hill.

sometimes the iresome gets tiresome.

have you ever experienced vendor lock-in from a Chinese product? how often from a product not sold by an American firm? is vendor lock-in an usually American business model?

not uniquely. spotify has obviously gone for lock-in via two-sided marketplace network effects.

who else?