1/ The home of all my journalism, @The_Corres, is celebrating one year of publishing hopeful journalism this month! If you are a founding member, it would be so great if you'd renew your membership by the end of the month via corr.es/renew-now
2/ Here are just a few of the stories I’ve published this year:
--> A chapter that I ended up leaving out of my book, about Peter Kropotkin, the Russian prince-turned-anarchist who had a VERY dangerous idea: most people are pretty decent. thecorrespondent.com/443/brace-your…
3/ A few months into the pandemic, it became clear that the era of neoliberalism is over. But what comes next? I wrote that the time has come for ideas that seemed impossible just months ago: thecorrespondent.com/466/the-neolib…
4/ And I’ve also published several extracts from my book HUMANKIND, including this essay about the remedy for hatred and prejudice (hint: get to know those who are different to you). thecorrespondent.com/668/science-sh…
5/ If you’re a founding member, please do renew your membership before 30 September to support ad free, independent journalism. corr.es/renew-now
6/ If you’re not a member, but enjoyed some of these articles, become a member! Membership is pay-what-you-want, because we know that most people are pretty decent, and will pay what they can afford for independent journalism: thecorrespondent.com/join [the end]
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Some disasters don't make the news, because they happen every single day. We've become accustomed to these catastrophes, even though they're often (much) worse than even the worst news on the front pages.
Case in point: the tobacco industry. /1
Imagine reading the following news item: 'Jumbo Jet crashes on runway, no survivors'. And imagine that half an hour later the same news item appears - 'Another Boeing 747 crashes, again no survivors' - and thirty minutes later again. /2
Then assume that this nightmare continues all day and night, and that eventually more than fifty planes crash in 24 hours. Finally, imagine that it goes on like this all year long.
That's how many deaths the tobacco industry causes. /3
Who are the real wealth creators? The bankers, the corporate lawyers, the marketeers and the CEO's? Or the teachers, nurses, garbage collectors, plumbers, cleaners, care workers, etc.?
Most of the time, wealth isn't created at the top. It's merely devoured there. A huge share of those we hail as “successful” and “innovative” are earning their wealth at the expense of others.
The people getting the biggest handouts are not down around the bottom, but at the very top.
This is simply an extraordinary study. Researchers gave $7,500 (CAD) to homeless people in Vancouver. The result? The program *saved* money. It helped many of them to move into housing faster, which saved the shelter system $8,277 per person. 🧵👇
Let that sink in: $8,277 is more than the value of the cash transfers ($7,500), which means the transfers paid for themselves. It's literally free money.
I find it difficult to exaggerate the implications of this finding. It could revolutionize how we deal with endemic problems like poverty and homelessness. It turns out that, all along, we've had a super effective medicine. It's called 'money'.
Dear @richardbranson, thanks for your kind words about my book 'Humankind'. I'm happy to hear that the hopeful message resonates with you. If you really want to take the book's message to heart, here's my suggestion... 🧵👇
/1virgin.com/branson-family…
... stop avoiding your taxes?
I know you've said that you live on your private island in the Caribbean for 'health reasons'. But the British Virgin Islands also happens to be a notorious tax paradise for the super wealthy, with no income tax and no wealth tax. /2
I know you've said you don't mind paying taxes, but recent court filings tell a different story. Your CEO Josh Bayliss wrote in an internal email in April 2020: 'Richard cannot escape the criticism. The truth is he has paid as little tax as possible.'
This is the story of one of the most inspiring schools on the planet. It's sometimes described as the 'Hogwarts for do-gooders', and when I visited the school in March of this year, I was absolutely blown away. 🧵👇
You'll find the school on a busy street in west London, in the Kilburn district, opposite a yoga studio and a car garage. At number 253, you'll see a sign that says: Charity Entrepreneurship (CE). /2
Let me start with the school's study guide, because it's easy to summarize. Charity Entrepreneurship is a school for VERY ambitious and VERY idealistic entrepreneurs. /3
Wow, this is such a wonderful project! Every week since August 2020, the folks at @future_crunch have featured one story of someone who is making the world a (much) better place. /1 futurecrunch.com/humankind-what…
'What would it be like,' they wondered, 'to roll back the red carpet and pay less attention to people with great hair, and more to those who are making things better?'
People who work under the rader, sometimes for decades, without a film crew, hashtag or sponsorship deal. /2
Think about a janitor in Florida who cooked a thousand meals a week for the homeless, a Nepalese sherpa who bought groceries for the unemployed, grandparents in India who created a pavement school for kids who couldn’t access online classes - and so, so much more. /3