fsebugoutzone.org:9999

       Posts by marick@mstdn.social
 (DIR) Post #AybQPDrtIQjjuahVK4 by marick@mstdn.social
       2025-09-26T14:03:09Z
       
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       @GeePawHill @interfluidity “What happens in practice ought to be possible in theory.” – Elinor Ostrom (paraphrase, referring to the theory of the Tragedy of the Commons)
       
 (DIR) Post #AyganD2fzPvLdEcazQ by marick@mstdn.social
       2025-09-29T03:38:54Z
       
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       @interfluidity My understanding is that scare quotes is an acknowledgement that quote marks are often used to cast doubt on the “truth” or “sincerity” or “believability” of a word or idea (or of that word’s applicability in the current situation). “Scare” isn’t the best word to describe what’s being done to the reader, but what would be a better and equally memorable word? (Anyway, the quote-technique aims to way overdo casting doubt, so an equally overwrought description for it seems fitting)
       
 (DIR) Post #AyplRfoTBfgOPWY7TE by marick@mstdn.social
       2025-10-03T13:50:41Z
       
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       @interfluidity There is an unwritten/unexplained part of the Constitution – call it the “shadow docket” – that contains esoteric knowledge that one learns either by being accepted into the lineage that’s maintained it since the days of the Founders, or by careful reading of what the text and the Federalist papers *don’t* say. It’s not like this is anything new:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato&#39;s_unwritten_doctrineshttps://shwep.net/podcast/the-esoteric-plato/
       
 (DIR) Post #Az04qO2qE9RxFkMuhc by marick@mstdn.social
       2025-10-08T13:15:09Z
       
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       @interfluidity Bruce Sterling’s /Holy Fire/ is on this topic:&quot;Set in a world of steadily increasing longevity (gerontocracy), a newly rejuvenated American woman drifts through the marginalised subculture of young European artists while dealing with the implications of posthumanism.”&quot;Holy Fire is the story of an old woman who has gained a second youth […] and who has an ontological transformation as a result.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Fire_(novel)
       
 (DIR) Post #B0PKAlAAzuSLvoC38a by marick@mstdn.social
       2025-11-19T15:22:36Z
       
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       @artlung @interfluidity I’m a fan of citizen’s assemblies as done in, for example, Ireland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens&#39;_Assembly_(Ireland) It’s a formal structure for involving citizens in legislative work.
       
 (DIR) Post #B0QXd44plMmvGJTv2O by marick@mstdn.social
       2025-11-20T00:00:30Z
       
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       My town – Champaign IL – is in decline, it seems to me.My industry – software – produces crappy products and is explicitly user-hostile.My final professional focus – Agile – is dominated by charlatans and people who care only about money.My country – USA – is desperately doing anything it can to avoid facing its mounting problems. My body – 1959 model – has decided it’s time for everything to be achy most all the time. I have a cold.This sucks.
       
 (DIR) Post #B0bAiXnI6FlFQrXRcO by marick@mstdn.social
       2025-11-23T14:35:56Z
       
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       What I don’t understand is how someone can write a biography (granted: only a couple of printed pages) of Charles Darwin without mentioning the single most inspirational thing he ever wrote:“But I am very poorly today &amp; very stupid &amp; I hate everybody &amp; everything. One lives only to make blunders.” Gives the rest of us hope.
       
 (DIR) Post #B0eftkWwlamyAjb2u0 by marick@mstdn.social
       2025-11-25T17:24:12Z
       
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       An interesting analysis of hidden increase in economic precarity in the US. Results are extreme enough that I’d like to see the analysis repeated for Scandinavian countries or Germany. https://www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-life-is-a-lieKey points: (1/7)
       
 (DIR) Post #B0eftlf8YcvzgQR6J6 by marick@mstdn.social
       2025-11-25T17:24:12Z
       
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       * Economic precarity is when your expenses are close enough to your income + savings that a major event will lead to bankruptcy/default. That in turn cuts you off from the credit market, anything that involves a credit check (like most rental housing), etc. High chance of permanent “economic inertness.” (2/7)
       
 (DIR) Post #B0eftmeorIH4ljIMS0 by marick@mstdn.social
       2025-11-25T17:24:12Z
       
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       * When thinking about precarity, you don’t get to say that cars are way better than they were in 1963. The question is: how much does it cost to get to work? Or: what does the minimal car cost? It’s more expensive than in 1963.* Minimal housing is way more expensive. Healthcare ditto. * At one time, the poverty line was the precarity line. Unfortunately, it was set to 3X the cost of food (because that was the easiest to measure). (3/7)
       
 (DIR) Post #B0eftu758c2btPZWyW by marick@mstdn.social
       2025-11-25T17:24:13Z
       
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       * Of the necessities, food is the one that’s gone up least. As a result, the precarity line (not part of govt. statistics) is deviating more and more from the poverty line (which is). That’s hiding a large increase in the number of precarious families. (4/7)
       
 (DIR) Post #B0efu237dDcwVRmTui by marick@mstdn.social
       2025-11-25T17:24:13Z
       
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       * That accounts for why people described as comfortably middle class are (and have been) so grumpy about the economy: they have nice things (because not-nice-things are unavailable), but are increasingly aware their lives are… precarious. (For larger and larger segments of the population, volatility of life outcomes has increased. Bigger downside risk.) (5/7)
       
 (DIR) Post #B0efu9P0IGI1JL4YUa by marick@mstdn.social
       2025-11-25T17:24:13Z
       
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       * Things are exacerbated because the social safety net is tied to the poverty line. The result is that benefits like Medicaid, income support, etc. taper off well before the line of precarity is reached. Medicaid goes away at $45,000, meaning a family earning that is slightly worse off than one earning $35,000. (6/7)
       
 (DIR) Post #B0efuGhh9AOrxKs568 by marick@mstdn.social
       2025-11-25T17:24:13Z
       
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       ‘At $40,000, you are drowning, but the state gives you a life vest. At $100,000, you are drowning, but the state says you are a “high earner” and ties an anchor to your ankle called “Market Price.”’Two things I wish I knew about Germany, etc. – what the precarity line is. (He has the US line at $136,000, which seems high.) And whether the social safety net is similarly mismatched to the precarity line. (via @creachadair, @gvwilson) (7/7)
       
 (DIR) Post #B0efuNpOevii3FWpZg by marick@mstdn.social
       2025-11-27T00:59:06Z
       
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       @creachadair @gvwilson See also: https://zirk.us/@interfluidity/115618748366990424&quot;someone does a lot of quite questionable envelope maths to reach a really important conclusion, that conclusions being that the way the modern economy is set up, it’s basically impossible to afford entirely normal aspirations like having a young family&quot;
       
 (DIR) Post #B0efuVJQpeu9GQdPrU by marick@mstdn.social
       2025-11-27T01:04:30Z
       
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       @creachadair @gvwilson I feel rather smug about having described the original post with “precarity line” rather than “poverty line”, since the point is that once poverty and precarity were the same thing, but now they’re not. I think the original article erred in using the same word for two different things, causing people to react (reasonably) to “$140K is poverty” with “bullshit”; whereas the better framing is “$140K does not make the average family safe.”
       
 (DIR) Post #B0efudBDa55VfGqyAa by marick@mstdn.social
       2025-11-27T01:08:54Z
       
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       @creachadair @gvwilson It’s important to realize that people don’t react to words like “poverty” by considering definitions, much less numerical thresholds. Such emotionally-freighted words have connotations and implications, and people will work from those first and most strongly. Your “well, actually, here are some facts” *does* *not* *cut* *it* when it comes up against gut reactions.
       
 (DIR) Post #B1kSmYoc6aPxcm8Dpo by marick@mstdn.social
       2025-12-29T18:04:18Z
       
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       @interfluidity I’m intrigued. Two questions:1. Is there a free trial period?2. Is cancelling as easy as signing up?I’m always up for new experiences, but I’ve been burned before.
       
 (DIR) Post #B1pTx92JMYpabNwu2a by marick@mstdn.social
       2025-12-31T19:15:18Z
       
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       @williampietri Pietri is an Italian name, isn’t it? I don’t think dusky-hued Italians can be heritage americans. Heck, given what Benjamin Franklin thought about “swarthy Germans,” I wouldn’t be either. https://www.lancasterhistory.org/events/benjamin-franklin-germans/
       
 (DIR) Post #B1rQuLVYcrNYrpWRrk by marick@mstdn.social
       2026-01-02T02:46:18Z
       
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       @tomjennings @williampietri Franklin was his own good handler. His Autobiography is a quite the self-hagiography.I don’t go in for the “oh, he was of his time” excuse, but when I look back on my life, there are things I did and wrote that make me hope no one ever learns of them. I prefer people focus on what I did right, not the evils I’ve expressed.So I tend to give Franklin a pass. Jefferson, not so much.