Chris Dillow

Not just the past. I'm puzzled at how people claim to be less trusting but then buy pills from some internet rando, fall for obvious scams, & vote for the most dishonest politicians.

Real Median Personal Income in the United States Real Median Personal Income in the United States

In the last decade yes, but in the years before Trump's first election victory, real incomes had stagnated for years: fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAI...

The far-right has been strongest at times of poor economic performance (eg 30s, 70s, now). Politics is shaped by economic forces. It's not a simple morality play, still less one that can be won by reason.

Political journalism tends to reduce politics to personal gossip. The algorithms of social media reward outrage and scandal mongering. Taken together they create modes of behaviour and thought that are the opposite of those we need to build institutions of mass solidarity…

Very much to agree with here. But it raises the qn: how can we compel the Labour right to stop aping Reform and start seriously addressing our big economic problems?

WASPInomics and the magic avocado tree Why boomers struggle to make sense of the millennial world.

My latest, exploring with numbers how the millennial household budget is basically incomprehensible to retired boomers.

As I wrote yesterday: “This sort of measure is always very popular, because it’s easy to make opposing it look bad: why do you want children to be able to access porn online? Many supporters of this kind of bill are all too eager to jump to that kind of argument, and do so shamelessly.”

My new piece for @liberalcurrents.com on the modern far right canon of intellectuals

Decades of Leaded Gasoline Tied to U.S. Mental Health Crisis Leaded gasoline exposure has caused lasting mental health and personality changes in millions, especially Generation X.

Long-term effects of leaded petrol? www.psychiatrist.com/news/decades...

A Brief History Of The Human Brain: How We Got It All Wrong All power corrupts, brain power being no exception.

Intelligence doesn’t make a species wiser or more ethical. It simply supercharges all survival skillsets, whether these are good or evil.
open.substack.com/pub/georgets...

The line before the one you highlight is crucial; hard economic times breed mean-spiritedness. The political answer to such sentiments, therefore, is to ensure that people become better off.

For these people, even the most right-wing of Labour governments is somehow illegitimate. I suspect this is a class thing rather than a policy one.

You're right. I was applying the otherwise silly cliche in a context in which it actually makes sense.

No she shouldn't. If we can't afford taxes to pay for the NHS then we can't afford charges either. And if we can't afford a decent state pension then we can't afford private ones. There's no magic money tree.

Not quite. Thatcher spoke endlessly of the rule of law; she'd have been appalled at fantasies of riots.

Yes, but it's a very selective nostalgia; they want the 1950s without the tax rates we had then.

The paradox of the far-right: OTOH they are scared of social change (immigration, "woke" youngsters). OTOH they want disruptive political change, & even foment social unrest. It's difficult to see a kind explanation of this paradox.

Rachel Reeves mulls stepping in to save car loan providers billions Exclusive: Chancellor could overrule supreme court if it upholds entirety of ruling over commission paid to brokers

It is important to understand what this case is about, so as to follow why retrospective legislation letting the lenders off the hook is such a bad idea.

Part of the responsibility for this farce lies with the UK state.

/1
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Great.

You may be right. Maybe a more socially democratic form of capitalism would work. I'd like to find out.

I think there is a chance they'll pursue sensible policies, but only after they've tried everything else.

Britain is not broken. What is broken is our capitalist economic model, & our political/media system which is unable to see this fact.

Yes. Such regular hours are unnatural, & were imposed by capitalism only after a long struggle. See eg E.P. Thompson: www.sv.uio.no/sai/english/...

True, but I doubt this is the crime Farage has in mind, especially as he's a Trump fanboy.

It's ironic that one of the few genuine social improvements of the last 30ish years is falling crime, & yet the far right are pretending that the opposite has happened.

I've no time for Cleverly, but mocking his intellect is cheap & irrelevant. We have a govt that talks of maxxing out the nation's credit card & thinks nationalizing water would require cuts to public spending. That tells us that intelligence doesn't matter in politics.

This. The best thing I ever did was to take up the guitar (in my 40s).

Doesn't matter. The tax should be due on the land, so if it's not paid the new owner is responsible for it; knowing this, legitimate owners would need a discount for buying land liable for tax arrears.

No. The land tax would be levied on the land owner. If he didn't pay, the land could be seized. Obvs, the owner would try to get the tenant to pay rent to cover the tax - but that gives him an incentive to choose better tenants.

This is a case for land taxes. People can disappear, but land can't. And land can be easily seized in the event of non-payment.