Capitalism’s race to the bottom There is an interesting story about how the chicken of the 1930s (on the left) became the chicken of the 21st century (on the right). It’s not just a tale about how antibiotics created bigger chickens (presumably even your organic, no-antibiotics, free-rangers are a product of that selective breeding), but about how monopsony makes prices higher by eliminating competition, not among manufacturers but among buyers upstream of consumers (the Tysons and Perdues, and the ADMs and Walmarts, etc.) Bloomberg’s three-part “Beak Capitalism” podcast explains how chicken farmers became Uber-style independent contractors before there was an Uber, and how Big Chicken learned to outsource its risk. Uber was late to that party. Consolidation among chicken processors meant farmers had fewer places to sell their birds (um, the processors’ birds, actually) and had to become all-but employees of Big Chicken. Chicken farmers these days raise the birds as contractors.
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There’s been a lot of attention, much of it apocalyptic, paid to Trump’s election, but Trump is just a symptom of one of our three main issues.
In order of importance, they are:
- Climate Change and Ecological Collapse;
- Mass disabling, largely due to Covid; and,
- The End of the Western Era, and the collapse of American hegemony.
If we manage a nuclear during the collapse of American hegemony, it’ll turn out to have been the most important issue, but I’m betting we’ll avoid it. If I’m wrong, you won’t be able to tell me so.
I was about to grab a handful of almonds as a snack when you told me to proceed with caution, because the serving size is ten almonds. But I won’t let this impact me. I’ll eat as many almonds as I want, up to ten maximum.
It wouldn’t be mentally healthy to obsess over the idea that I am eating too many almonds, at least if I’m eating a helping that’s within reason, like ten or fewer. The fat in almonds is good fat. It’s not like I’m having greasy chips. And, after all, I’m hungry. So the only limit to my almond consumption is ten.
Everything in moderation, they say. Screw that. The only thing I’ll moderate is listening to you about how many almonds I can have. I listen to no one but me. I’m listening closely, and I’m hearing me say ten is an appropriate number.
“Be careful,” you said. That must mean too many almonds would be bad news. But, honestly, my attitude is “YOLO.” You’re Opulently Licensed to have One-to-ten-almonds. It’s risky, but the bigger risk is letting your life go by without knowing the indulgence of up to ten almonds and no more than that unless you want to go further, which I do not.
Nine health care workers at UCSF report censorship or punishment for speaking out about human rights for Palestinians — or simply wearing a pin.
The post San Francisco’s Biggest Hospital System: Don’t Talk About Palestine appeared first on The Intercept.
Millionaire landowners are using dubious statistics to campaign against the Government's inheritance tax reforms
THREE City of Coffs Harbour lifeguards have been honoured for their courageous actions at a tragic incident at Moonee Beach where six people were swept out to sea. Greg Hackfath, Hugo Craigan and Alex Swadling received Commendations at the Coffs/Clarence Police District Awards Ceremony at the Hub2 at Coffs Harbour on 14 November. Advertise with...
The post Lifeguards honoured for Moonee Beach heroics appeared first on News Of The Area.
- by Beth Linker
Yours truly har under några år hållit i en kurs för forskare på Malmö universitet kring kausalitet. Den som är intresserad kan ta del av kursens powerpoint här: Kausalitet — en crash course Många frågeställningar inom samhällsvetenskapen idag handlar i grunden om frågor angående kausalitet. Vad ligger bakom den ökade arbetslösheten? Vilka effekter har friskolorna […]
Rhea Mirchandani and Steve Blaxland Supervisors are responsible for ensuring the safety and soundness of firms and avoiding their disorderly failure which has systemic consequences, while managing increasingly voluminous data submitted by them. To achieve this, they analyse metrics including capital, liquidity, and other risk exposures for these organisations. Sudden peaks or troughs in these … Continue reading Using causal inference for explainability enhancement in the financial sector
In his monthly column, John Mitchinson explores how a country house party in Oxfordshire helped invent democracy
The spectre of Boris Johnson's assault on standards in public life is slowly retreating, argues Josiah Mortimer
Senior politicians, military leaders and experts send an open letter calling on Europe and Canada to join forces in defending Ukraine from Russian aggression
The NAIRU story has always had a very clear policy implication — attempts to promote full employment are doomed to fail since governments and central banks can’t push unemployment below the critical NAIRU threshold without causing harmful runaway inflation. Although a lot of mainstream economists and politicians have a touching faith in the NAIRU fairy […]
The LGBTIQ community, and the broader left, lost a stalwart fighter this week with the death of Mannie De Saxe at age 98.
The post Vale Mannie De Saxe, gay Jewish socialist first appeared on Solidarity Online.
This Tuesday report will provide some insights into life for a westerner (me) who is working for an extended period at Kyoto University in Japan. This is my final report for 2024 as my working time at the university is completed for another year and we will resume these reports in 2025 when I return.…
Not being reported? President Xi Jinping gives President Joe Biden boundaries. Jason Clare MP says you can’t bomb your way to peace while a Gaza Psychiatrist shares footage of bodies in Gaza. Peter Garrett calls out AUKUS and Senator Barbara Pocock supports the issues raised by Senator Lidia Thorpe. Footage of Keir Starmer from 2014 Continue reading »
Philip Bump says Biden had a bigger mandate than Trump has: A lot of early analysis of the 2024 presidential election has suffered from three overlapping problems. First, that vote margins can be influenced by changes in turnout as well as changes in vote preference. If voters stay home, the candidate they would have supported receives fewer votes. And it looks like a lot of 2020 voters stayed home in 2024. But — second — not as many as one might have thought in the first few days after the election. Many immediate analyses of what happened exaggerated the decrease in Democratic votes or suggested that Donald Trump won an outright majority of votes cast, both errors that were a function of failing to consider (particularly) California’s sizable, slow-to-count vote total. The third problem is that the shift to Trump in the voting — real and widespread — is being conflated with broad support for Trump, which is far less dramatic.
A few weeks ago, I drew up a flowchart to estimate the probability that Trump would establish a dictatorship in the US, which looked, at the time, like an even money bet. We don’t need to speculate any more. Trump has announced the dictatorship, and there is no sign of effective resistance. The key elements […]
“When we fight, we win!” – Kamala Harris. So, what do we do when we fight & lose? Never Give Up! Never surrender! People admire that about a leader and a cause. We don’t just fight the fights we can win. You fight the fights that need fighting!” Martin Sheen, The American President (1995) We expect people to follow the norms of losing. Like we do. Accept the loss. Don’t flip the board over. And when we WIN? We are supposed to accept the win. So we stop fighting. We reach out to the losing side & shake hands. We follow the norms of winners. Say, “Good luck! It’s great to have a strong opponent!” We aren’t supposed to be a sore winner! Don’t spike the football. Don’t mock them for losing. Don’t brag about the win everywhere. “Don’t get cocky kid!” I’m getting into too many sports and movie metaphors here, so I want to talk about a specific win and why when we fight & win against RWers we must keep fighting, because the norms of winning aren’t enough against today’s RW.
How a flashy opal inspired artist Tyler Thrasher's new book.
The post Color Makes the Universe appeared first on Nautilus.