People who follow the news are more likely to agree with statements such as ‘Most people care only about themselves.’ They more often believe that we as individuals are helpless to better the world. They are more likely to be stressed and depressed. /1 First to open up this field of research, back in the 1990s, was George Gerbner (1919–2005). He also coined a term to describe the phenomenon he found: 'mean world syndrome' (), whose clinical symptoms are cynicism, misanthropy and pessimism. /2lnkd.in/eMMxzWy5

For the first time in history, billionaires have a lower effective tax rate than working-class Americans. It’s time to tax those billionaires. And no, that’s not communism, that’s common sense. Check out the plummeting tax rates of the super rich in the US (from this great piece by @gabriel_zucman: ). It's no different for billionaires in other countries. nytimes.com/interactive/20…

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

Take two scales. Put all the wild birds (from the moorhen to the stork, from the pied kingfisher to the cockapoo – 10,000+ species) on one, and put all the chickens from (factory) farms on the other.
The chickens will weigh more than twice as much.
ourworldindata.org/wild-mammals-b… /1 Take two scales. Put all wild mammals (from the tiger to the giraffe, from the dolphin to the whale) on one, and put all the sows and pigs from (factory) farms on the other.
The pigs will turn out to be three times as heavy.
/2

It's important to expose the hypocrisy of billionaires and big corporations evading their taxes. But it's also important to acknowledge the progress that we've made since 2019. A short thread -->
/1 First, the big news of last month: the European Union is leading the world with a 15% minimum tax on big business. For months, Hungary's prime minister (dictator?) Viktor Orbán and his cronies were trying to block the plan, but to no avail. /2

Did a short interview with NPR's @MorningEdition with my thoughts on the downfall of FTX, billionaire philanthropy and the (future of) the effective altruism movement.

https://twitter.com/allyschweitzer/status/1601223376152170497

Before the FTX implosion, at an EA-conference in Rotterdam, I argued that EA-billionaires should go 'Yvon Chouinard' (the Patagonia founder who gave away his company) and stop being a billionaire. That's what I would call costly signalling.

Thread: I've been thinking about what I find so tiresome and frustrating about some (not all!) pundits on the left these days. I guess this tweet is a good example. Here’s what happened: @willmacaskill published a fascinating book about the future of humanity. /1

https://twitter.com/parismarx/status/1554626710620045320

However you lean politically, read it and you’ll have to agree that it’s very well researched and thought-provoking. Read a little about Will himself, and you’ll have to agree that he’s a pretty inspiring person. /2

Do we need billionaires for innovation and growth? Thomas Piketty is really sharp in this interview nytimes.com/2022/06/07/pod… /1 This is always a good reminder: the US used to have *much* higher levels of taxation. Clearly, this didn't destroy capitalism – to the contrary. It made the economy more productive and egalitarian. /2

Me for @TheAtlantic on the return of what you could call the 'European Dream'. I got the idea for this piece after speaking with a group of young Ukrainians in Kiev, last October. Short 🧵 --> /1
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/… What really struck me, was that they all told me of their deepest wish for their country: membership in the European Union. For them, the EU was synonymous with democracy and freedom, progress and prosperity. /2

About the grain shortage: Big Agriculture wants you to believe that environmental protections are the problem. In reality, it's factory farming. An 8% reduction (!) in the use of cereals for animal feed in the EU would be enough to make up for the deficit caused by the war. It's not just the animal suffering, the inefficiency and wastefulness of factory farming are also staggering. You need 6.4 kg of animal feed to produce 1kg of pork, 25kg to produce 1kg of beef. Sources:
brusselstimes.com/212365/reduce-… and ourworldindata.org/grapher/feed-r…

Short 🧵 on my feelings of deep unease about the current atmosphere, and the dizzying speed with which radical conclusions are being drawn. People who couldn’t find Ukraine on a map a week ago, are calling for a no fly-zone. 1/9 People who had never heard of SWIFT a week ago, now want even more banks to be kicked off it. People who don't really know what the current sanctions are, and what their effects will be, are calling for more sanctions. More, more, more. 2/9

Here's one of the most rewarding things I did this year (after becoming a father 😁). I took the @GivingWhatWeCan pledge to donate at least 10% of my income to effective charities. See givingwhatwecan.org - such a wonderful community, very happy to be a member. A lot of people in rich countries don't realize just how rich they are. For example, if you earn a median wage in a country like The Netherlands, where I'm from, you're part of the richest 3.5% in the world. Check out the 'How Rich Am I Calculator' (howrichami.givingwhatwecan.org/how-rich-am-i). /2

Uh... the 'broken windows' theory of policing has been totally debunked. Even the man who came up with the idea, the criminologist George Kelling, has denounced it. Reading a twenty year old Malcolm Gladwell book is perhaps not enough prep if you want to run for mayor ... /1

https://twitter.com/LozzaFox/status/1384490597495369735

Here's a systematic review of the research (30 studies in total), published in 2015 in the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00… /2

WOOOW. A Canadian research project gave homeless people $7,500 each — the results were 'beautifully surprising'.

Turns out: basic income for the homeless pays for itself. It's free money, because 'the project saved the shelter system $8,100 per person'.
'cbc.ca/news/canada/br… Here are some of the main results:
1: Cash recipients move out of
homelessness faster. The cash group spent 4,396 fewer
nights homeless over 12 months

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…

NEWS! I'm so honoured to be guest editor of this week's The Big Issue, UK's wonderful street newspaper. Theme: CYNICISM IS OUT, HOPE IS IN. On the cover: exclusive illustration by the great @charliemackesy! /1 We've got brilliant pieces by @helenlewis and @NesrineMalik on activism and social change. I've interviewed filmmaker Richard Curtis (Love Actually, About Time, etc) about his films, activism and how he's being radicalised by his kids. (Teaser: bigissue.com/latest/richard…) /2