Democracy
How do cities assert their rights and defend local democracy from rising authoritarianism? How do they master their own destinies in the face of digital transformation and overwhelming power? And how might they solve planetary problems that threaten their lives and homes? Over the past two generations, such big questions have fallen increasingly to small, local governments.
Vile and disgusting
The gargantuan military aid bill that passed last week and the Democrats’ Build Back Better package relied on similar legislative strategies for passage. The party saw the strategy through to secure money for war while abandoning it to fund social programs. If we look at the contrast between the mammoth military aid package funding a
Abortion Rights
Citizen-driven ballot initiatives are a powerful tool in the fight against abortion bans like the one threatening Arizona. State governments can’t be trusted to execute the popular will. We’ll have to do it ourselves. From Jacobin The AAA initiative is an example of a citizen-driven ballot initiative, a method by which ordinary citizens choose an important
Capitalism
Libertarians argue that capitalism is superior to socialism because in capitalism anyone is free to do anything — including start a worker cooperative. In truth, capitalism constrains our options, while socialism can liberate us to live as we please. Capitalism is a system under which the means of production can be bought and sold by
Capitalism
Sellers have always had access to more information than buyers, and “dynamic pricing,” which harnesses the power of algorithms and big data, is supercharging this asymmetry. If you weren’t already convinced the future of capitalism will involve an endless optimization of extractive capacity and the ensuing enshitification of every last bit of consumer life, well, get ready
Capitalism
Ayn Rand believed that the path to social harmony ran through the inferior masses’ acceptance of brutal rule by their natural superiors. Her perspective was wrong, and its implications were just as grim and nasty as her atrocious personality. Those of us familiar with Ayn Rand’s ardent pro-capitalism and renowned meanspiritedness may be disinclined to