“That this sounds radical – that one might believe in a democracy that creates laws, affords companies economic freedom within those laws, and enforces those laws against companies that choose to violate them – says much about our divisive times.”
Being close to tech and now also to schools, I can tell you that those two things should not mix in any way. The only interchange should be levying taxes on tech companies to better fund schools.
Alternative licenses like the Forklift Certified License are a good and necessary counter-reaction to open source becoming a corporate hollowed out shambles.
He is a Marxist who understands the importance of money and markets; without Marx, you cannot understand the movement of history, but without money, you can’t do anything about it.
This week economists have been congratulating themselves on following Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson into institutions. They are, in effect, proud to have discovered the rest of the social sciences.
This is the kind of deep and rational thinking we should expect to see from the billionaires who own most of the world. Jeff Bezos, one of the richest people in the world, got so demonised that he had to have a cry about it.
A weird coincidence how a media campaign would lead to double digit billions in extra revenues for fossil fuel providers (and to worse outcomes for everybody wanting to heat their homes in Germany). Nothing behind this probably.
We liked to pretend that it was possible to use American cloud providers with any measure of sovereignty, but that pretence is going to drop very soon now. Not sure what the alternatives are, but everybody should be planning for some drastic changes here.
It’s a shame these people are so thoroughly psychopathic (from this epic Guardian profile) because this piece about pronatalism is nothing if not well argued.
Good luck hiring talent for your struggling economy with racism becoming even more rampant than it normally is. Not that that is the only problem facing Germany, but it’s a huge distraction for all parties while nothing material has improved for decades.
Imagine being this rich and having this much free time and using all of those capabilities to drive yourself mad with ignorance. Nothing bad has happened to these people yet they are convinced the entire world is out to get them.
As if it wasn’t obvious that the New York Times is a pile of crap, here’s them getting rid of Paul Krugman for views that aren’t Trump positive enough.
Not politicians, just career bureaucrats deep in the system. I ask them what their favorite part of the job is. They all say “stability” or “job security” as their #1. It takes 18 months to get the city to permit your shed? They. Do. Not. Care.
We can probably look forward to see more large American companies destabilize under a regime of financialization, deregulation and competitive pressure.
What’s happening in Flint is a good example of how the social effects of institutional lapses are much more difficult to fix than just replacing a bunch of pipes. We’re seeing the same effects happening around COVID and its after effects and we’ll see many more examples of government distrust and chaotic confusion in the coming decades.
Brazil still remembers that it’s a state with state power and has found a delightful habit of pouncing on social media sites. Other states should follow suit.
A thought-provoking article about how to counteract car bloat. I would add that driving a SUV is even worse than smoking because it mostly harms others, not the person doing the driving themselves.
In Germany for many transactions you need a proof of address which a Personalausweis provides for German citizens. Us foreigners don’t get one however often we ask for it. In the Netherlands moving through the country without a battery of chip cards (OV chipkaart, Bonuskaart, OV-fiets etc.), apps and associated services is costly and annoying.
Musks’s attack on Wikipedia is another step in getting rid of information sources where they can’t control the narrative and the “truth”. Everything they’re doing is built on lies.
Judging from this article, it will probably not be good for the acceptance of new technologies long term to build data centers in drought struck areas.
Old people’s brains have been entirely cooked by the slop feeds that Meta produces. No parent worth their salt would trust these people to protect their kids. The EU should follow suit.
What China has done in industry after industry is to flatten the supply curve by subsidizing hordes of producers. This spurs innovation, increases output and crushes margins. Value is not being destroyed; it’s accruing to consumers as lower prices, higher quality and/or more innovative products and services.
Nicolas from All About Berlin has done so much to make living in this administrative nightmare bearable for people. It’s a very clear example of what kind of 10-100x improvements are there to be had.
An interesting article to read about how the city botched renaming the Manteuffelstraße to Audrey-Lord-Straße. I cycle past this street every day and I don’t think it’s a bad change. Unfortunately, they’ve done it in such a bad way that it’ll poison every person who hears about it against the very concept of government:
In modern justice and on the part of those who dispense it there is a shame in punishing, which does not always preclude zeal. This sense of shame is constantly growing: the psychologists and the minor civil servants of moral orthopaedics proliferate on the wound it leaves.
I can’t believe I have to say this, but let’s do it anyway: Going to Mars is—just like the hyperloop—a distraction from the actual problems and solutions in front of us.
It’s become fashionable in tech circles to say that all legislation is bad. This is a dangerous and wildly ignorant way of thinking. Without legislation, many people would not survive and the very things that we depend on for a good life would not exist.
After some occasional brushes with party politics and reading up on the minimal political agency that we foreigners get here, I dove in. The rise of right-wing sentiment seemed to be a good reason to become a member of the Greens just like I imagine it did for a number of people. Much good that did do if you see the continued rise of that sentiment and this Green government all but enabling right-wing parties with their politics of austerity.
Krasse Links looks like yet another collection of links but the German wall of text notwithstanding, it’s a remarkable act of curation and contextualisation. Remarkable and unique for sure in Germany.
For a relatively complete and concise rundown of how insane Germany is at the moment, this conversation with journalist James Jackson is highly recommended. Things are really spiralling into pure madness here and it seems likely that that will be the new normal.