On this week’s @LRCkcrw, I diagnose the unhinged response to @ebruenig’s Mother’s Day column as largely about people not wanting to own their choices. I don’t have or want kids, I’m at peace with that, I’m not threatened when other people do differently. kcrw.com/news/shows/lef…
Often, people with above-average incomes say they “can’t afford” to have children at a certain time or a certain number of children, when what they really mean is they want to make other consumption choices. It’s fine to make other consumption choices. Stop being so defensive!
There are a lot of people with degrees from highly selective colleges who think it’s “unaffordable” to have three children in the New York area on $400,000 a year.
“Do you know what private school tuition costs?” Oh hey, I have identified the problem.
There is something remarkable though about the income level where you can vacation in Aspen with your three children. I acknowledge: it’s much higher than the income level where you can vacation in Aspen with no children.

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More from @jbarro

7 May
Give this man the Nobel prize for literature already
Read 4 tweets
6 May
I’ve been making a new mint-orange-bourbon cocktail

2oz makers mark
1/2oz mint syrup
1/2oz Napa Valley Distillery Grand California (a great orange liqueur with strong orange flavor and a bitter note)

Stir with ice, strain into a Nick and Nora glass, garnish w/ a mint sprig.
To make enough mint syrup to nearly fill a wine bottle, just bring 1.5 cup of sugar and 1.5 cup of water to boil with about 5oz of mint (two supermarket packages), steep for 15 minutes and strain.
(By which I mean, turn the heat off right after it reaches the boil and leave the saucepan undisturbed 15 minutes.)
Read 5 tweets
4 May
You are rich if you make $500,000 a year, even if you don’t consider yourself rich. Still, Dems will have a hard time agreeing to raise taxes on the rich, since some congressional Dems want to tie it to a big tax cut for the rich — SALT. businessinsider.com/people-who-mak…
Low interest rates are also a barrier to tax hikes in 2021. The usual argument for raising taxes is “someone has to pay for this.” But does someone? The ease with which we can borrow makes spending easy and taxing hard. businessinsider.com/people-who-mak…
(One thing people forget on SALT is it’s not *just* a sop to rich Democrats in blue states — public employee unions care about restoring the deduction because it makes it easier for states to tax rich people and spend the proceeds. So the issue has more legs than you’d think.)
Read 6 tweets
3 May
This sounds like a policy dispute, not a “bullying” concern.
Like, maybe Scott Stringer is personally nasty, but "threatened to oppose me politically if I did not line up with him on this issue" is in-bounds elected official behavior. Nobody would care if they thought Stringer was in the right on the underlying policy.
What happened to "politics ain't beanbag"?
Read 7 tweets
2 May
Is there a reason that everyone on Long Island drives like they have a death wish?
I used to think Long Island and Northern New Jersey were essentially the same thing but the drivers are much better in New Jersey.
Long Island drivers love to:
-Follow too closely
-Weave in and out of traffic
-Change lanes without signaling
-Illegally cross the HOV lane divider on the LIE
-Make visibly exasperated gestures when any vehicle is in their way
Read 6 tweets
29 Apr
I am skeptical about the political power of school opening. Only about 1/4 of voters have school age kids at home. Many are in states like FL where there's full in-person. Many others are wary of reopening. But many conservative writers live in slow-opening blue jurisdictions...
Where you need to be for this to matter politically -- a slow-opening jurisdiction in a swing state, and a parent who wanted schools more open -- it's actually a very small slice of the electorate. Obviously everything is on the margin, and I support more opening on the merit.
And of course this issue will all be over by September. Even in California, you have state lawmakers talking about how they'll force the districts open in the fall.
Read 4 tweets

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