News — At The Edge — 12/9
Only three articles this week —
- Present Issues Undermining the Future — plutocratic gangsters are rigging the economy and taxing graduate students — reveals the true breadth and depth of U.S. decline.
Here are links to articles of mine on these subjects that may be of interest to you:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Present Issues Undermining the Future
How America’s economy is rigged by special interests -
“America’s political dysfunction looks forbiddingly irreparable, its government implacably hostile to expertise…[and] economy is now impaired by policies which both reduce growth and increase inequality….
To an economist, a rent is excess, undeserved income resulting from barriers to competition…[often] the result of successful attempts by firms to rig the rules of the marketplace in their favor…[and] seems to have grown worse in recent decades.
America’s economy is not just weaker and less equal than it used to be; it is also less dynamic. Profits have grown and become more concentrated, indicating a lack of competitive vibrancy…. Implicit and explicit government subsidies to the financial industry enrich bankers and sow the seeds of crisis, for example, but have done little to boost growth….
Narrow interests triumph…because the windfall…from their politicking gives…incentive to organize and to press their case…[while] costs of bad policy are spread across…the public at large, making it harder for them to organize….
[Must] ‘give government back its brain.’. Since 1980, cost-cutting has shrunk congressional staffs and government information agencies like the Congressional Research Service…..[So] legislators have come to rely…on research and analysis produced by interest groups. America’s government should invest in…qualified civil-research bureaucracy…[to] provide a neutral benchmark against which industry claims could be judged….
[Sadly] current leadership has little regard for government experts, and…worked to undermine…independent analysis. There is a risk that America’s institutional rot is too far advanced for mere deliberation to help.” https://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21731803-americas-government-should-invest-well-paid-qualified-civil-research-bureaucracy-how
The U.S. Leads in Artificial Intelligence, but for How Long?-
“[As] top artificial-intelligence researchers gathered…Congress’s tax plan…reduced funding for fields including AI and tightening…immigration for international researchers…..
[Taxes] requiring graduate students to pay taxes on their tuition…normally waived by academic institutions…would suddenly mean a tax bill of around $10,000, making it much harder for U.S. universities…to attract graduate students…[and] ‘grave threat to both our competitiveness’….
Meanwhile, other governments spy an opportunity, and an imperative to invest heavily in AI….American policy is contributing to having AI research leave the country…[and] government’s immigration policy is affecting AI startups…[with] difficulty recruiting researchers….
[It] is just terrible and a really bad idea for society at large.” https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609610/the-us-leads-in-artificial-intelligence-but-for-how-long/
In the End, Reality Will Win -
“[Truth] keeps getting whacked by this gangster White House…[in] how-low-can-he-go bar keeps falling….
Trump does not believe his own words on videotape…[about] predatory behavior that has caused everyone but him to get fired….[He] tweeted out discredited hate videos from a fringe group…praised by the former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke….If facts don’t matter, then a professional press…is irrelevant. Everyone is a liar….
Trump is a hooligan to the Constitution…[with]…a gaggle of people being paid very well to help him subvert truth, justice and…[and] bring everyone into the sewer…joining autocrats, drug cartels and Islamic militants who also hate independent fact-finders…[and] calls journalists “the lowest form of humanity….
You can’t stop a hurricane by calling it a snowflake….Well, you can try, and try, and eventually you’ll be led away under escort of people in white coats.” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/opinion/in-the-end-reality-will-win.html
Find more of my ideas on Medium at, A Passion to Evolve.
Or click the Follow button below to add me to your feed.
Prefer a weekly email newsletter — no ads, no spam, & never sell the list — email me dochuston1@gmail.com with
“add me” in the subject line.
May you live long and prosper!
Doc Huston
