This is a huge mischaracterization of what the article actually said and it's funny to me that no one read the article. Don't we have LLMs now that do the reading for us?

negatively polarized against the left because of things like this - if you're going to block me, go ahead, but don't get the last word and then run away

Once again it's just land. 40% of agricultural land is leased. Tax land. Just please tax land.

This is the ultimate midwit healthcare take. No, 32 countries have not “figured out” universal healthcare. The UK has “free” healthcare, and roughly 1 in 3 cancer patients in England still fail to start treatment within 62 days of urgent referral. Canada has “free” healthcare, and the median wait for neurosurgical treatment is around a year. Australia has “free” healthcare, and over half the country still buys private insurance despite paying for a public universal system with their taxes. Switzerland has universal coverage, because residents are required to buy private insurance. There is no government system where benevolent bureaucrats tuck you in at night with a warm blanket and an MRI appointment. The actual lesson from other wealthy countries is not “they figured it out.” America’s system has huge problems. Our prices are insane, insurance markets are distorted, and hospital systems are cartelized. Our regulations make care more expensive than it needs to be. Yet we still guarantee access to even the 8% who don’t have coverage. We give easy routes to qualify for medicaid for those with disabilities. Pretending the rest of the world solved healthcare because they slapped the word “universal” on a rationing scheme is not analysis. It is bumper sticker policy for people who think access means having a card in your wallet while you wait a year to see the doctor you need.

Discovering there’s an actual technique to tuck a shirt explains a lot nitter.net/vixen_8001/status/2023…

It’s important that you understand what happened last night. Last night, Stephen Colbert interviewed Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, a candidate who, by all accounts, is on track in the polls to flip Texas blue. In response, Trump’s FCC reportedly threatened CBS if the interview aired. CBS caved and pulled the segment, citing “financial reasons.” In modern American history, no president has been more hostile to free speech than Donald Trump. But censorship always backfires. Here’s the full segment Trump didn’t want you to see.

This form is effectively blocked at every turn in the U.S. Let’s ignore zoning, code for now and just talk about development finance. For most projects that is 2 conversations - the construction loan that gets you to a filled building & “perm” debt that gets you to an acceptable yield. Construction loans are riskier. So the interest rate (and fees) reflect that. Meanwhile many lenders have a niche in what they mostly lend one. This one does a lot of medical. That one multifamily. This one strip centers. And so on. Know what niche no construction lenders like? Small mixed use buildings. Not one. So the only option for this type is a local oriented bank. Which means your list of possible lenders has shrunk to (maybe) 3 that will actually look at this kind of deal with any real interest. And since it’s an “atypical product” expect especially conservative underwriting and a heftier than normal amount of equity (cash) being required. What this means practically is you need a unicorn property that shows positive cash flow after getting the rent assumption beaten to death. Or to throw an obscene amount of equity into the project. Probably both. And of course if you’re doing small development it’s because you have tons of capital, right? Now - let’s say you find a unicorn lender. The next obstacle is the permanent financing. Because you won’t really make any money (or get some of that obscene equity amount back) until you can get out of that construction loan via refinance. Except there is no product for long amortization loans on something like this. If it’s multifamily you have a robust capital market via the GSEs offering low rate, 30 year loans. Often with long interest only periods, attractive debt ratio requirements, and all non-recourse. So we’re back to a short list of area banks with 20 year amortizations, higher debt coverage requirements, less of your own money back plus a personal guaranty that puts your home & all your assets on the hook. Once you understand how this works in practice it’s no wonder these don’t get built. You basically need to be a non-pragmatic wealthy person doing this as a vanity project with some potential upside. Far easier to just go build garden apartments wherever the land becomes cheap enough while still being a viable commute. They’ll lend you money on those easy.

Social Security is running out of money, and the consequences will be severe: By 2032, “more than 70 million beneficiaries will face a 24% benefit cut. For a typical newly retired couple, that’s an $18,400 annual benefit cut.”

“The problem with Total Boomer Luxury Communism is that at some point you run out of Millennials’ money.” — Mecha-Thatcher, probably

Mr Beast lined up one person from each age 1-100 and had them race to a finish line, and the overhead camera is an oddly beautiful data visualization of speed by age.

I just felt old for the first time. Like.. consciously felt the experience of "what am I supposed to do with this new information?"

for better or worse the world is run by whoever shows up

One day George will reach the level of Marx as it pertains to people making strong claims about what he did/didn't understand without having ever read a single thing he actually wrote. Soon.

By far the most important component to high trust, imo, is that you believe that the people in charge are largely following the same set of rules that you yourself are required to follow. I think that's the major illusion that has been shattered.

One of the biggest reasons neighborhoods like this exist is that families value good schools more than walkable coffee shops If downtowns don’t have good local schools … their walkability vanishes for families. And the City becomes a place only for the young or childless