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Noah Smith @Noahpinion
, 3 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
Capitalism, however, has failed catastrophically and permanently when middle-class incomes rise more slowly than expected for a couple decades...
I don't think either socialism or capitalism in its pure, activist-supported form is particularly great, but this double standard has always irked me a bit...
I want government health insurance, more redistribution, wealth taxes, better environmental regulation, etc., but if agriculture and manufacturing and housing get taken over by Jacobin writers I'll consider moving to Denmark.
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One thing I think would help reduce elite Millennial burnout/disappointment/rage is for people to stop thinking that their job should save the world.

"Save the world" and "make the world a better place" are probably just things employers tell you to get you to work for cheap.
Maybe your job will give you meaning and purpose and a sense of doing good for the world.

Or maybe it'll just make you some money so you can raise some kids, have some pet rabbits, and be active in your local community.

There's more than one way to get meaning in life.
Also, people glorify saving the world when it probably just gives you PTSD.

We like watching Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and whatever, but we wouldn't want to actually fight Darth Vader or slog through Mordor. That would cause major burnout!
Read 3 tweets
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1/Since Trump's demand for his Wall is in the headlines, I thought it would be a good time for a thread about a history book I just read:

"Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control in America", by Daniel Tichenor (2002)

amazon.com/Dividing-Lines…
2/The book starts out with a chapter or two of dense, unnecessary political science jargon, saying that - essentially - U.S. immigration policy tends to move very slowly, because powerful politicians and officials resist the tide of public opinion.
3/But most of the book is an extremely readable, eye-opening history of U.S. immigration policy, from the founding through the 1990s.

It shows how the immigration debates we're now having have been with us, in some form or another, for a very long time.
Read 27 tweets
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Thread about why very high tax rates on very rich people don't raise much revenue (or reduce inequality much, even within the top tier).

Our system has a million loopholes. Closing them is more important than raising top rates.
That's not to say there's a trade-off between raising the top rate and closing loopholes! They are complements, not substitutes.

But if you just raise the top rate without closing loopholes, you'll likely be disappointed.
The fact is, raising effective taxes on the very rich will require a comprehensive sustained push on a large number of policy fronts. There is not going to be one silver bullet.
Read 6 tweets

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Angry democrats always think when taxes are raised by their democratic leaders, that the taxes will be increased on the rich. Nothing could be further from the truth. They don't take the time to fact check their democratic leaders, so they always get it wrong. SAD!
The tax laws are written to protect the rich. They are able to hide more of their money, because they don't have to spend it all to make ends meet.Its always the middle class that suffers.Middle class people need more of their money to live on. This keeps them from protecting it!
The last time we had a serious crash, it was because too many people were living on borrowed money. Many bought houses they could not afford to pay for. The banks went and lent all that money to people who were truly not qualified to borrow it. Hence the crash. Do we want this?
Read 7 tweets
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It's Saturday. Shall we tweetstorm? Oh, yes, we shall. Let's talk Venezuelan hyperinflation, and socialism.

washingtonpost.com/opinions/venez…
As always, I'm not going to restate the thesis of the column here. I'm going to answer objections and questions. Which case came in a few basic flavors:
1) What about all the non-socialist countries that had hyperinflations?
2) Venezuela isn't socialist. It's populist authoritarian.
3) Venezuela's main problem is corruption and bad goernance
4) You're cherry picking with Venezuela and the Soviet Union. What about Scandinavia?
Read 24 tweets
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1. My first best friend, when I was 6, was a boy named Steven Wu. Steven's Mom was an acupuncturist, and one day after we dropped Steven off, my Dad told me acupuncture was against the law. My first experience of perceiving crime as glamourous.
2. When I was 11 years old, my father bought a CB radio. My CB handle was "Timber Wolf".
Read 153 tweets
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We are dying younger, in part, because of deliberate policy choices made over decades:
• Rejecting universal health care.
• Cutting taxes for the rich.
• Shunning income support.
• Abandoning universal child care.

Those choices increasingly set us apart in the world. #SDoH
“...any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
#SDoH #Interdependence #PEoH theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/us-l…
“We are the wealthiest nation on earth, but far from the healthiest, and things are getting worse, not better.” #SDoH #PEoH #HiAP #IRoS statnews.com/2018/01/04/lif…
Read 154 tweets
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If you follow me on here, you probably already know that I think the GOP tax bill is bad news. But it's going to be voted on in the (very) near future, and I need you to speak out loud and clear against it. Here's why: 1/
First, and very importantly: This tax bill very clearly puts large corporations and the wealthiest among us ahead of middle-class families. Full stop. By 2027, we would see a substantial tax hike for the middle class. 2/
And while middle-class families pay more, the top 1% would see an average of $32,510 in tax CUTS. Want to be even more appalled? The top 0.1%—making at least $5.1 *million* a year—would see an average tax cut of $208,060! 3/
Read 9 tweets
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Latest Census data on inequality and poverty were just released. Tweetstorm coming...
It looks like 2016 was a good year. Real median household income (yes, this adjusts for inflation) rose +3.2% to $59,039.
Poverty took a healthy step down in 2016. It fell from 13.5% to 12.7% on the official measure; from 14.5% to 13.9% on the supplemental.
Read 28 tweets

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