Meanwhile, I was in a meeting this morning in which several people (including the presenter) worried about what getting food into the stomachs of our poorest citizens would do to inflation.
Hint: there’s a reason it’s referred to as stimulus funding. 100% goes right back into the economy, unlike tax cuts for the rich. So much better bang-for-the-buck, and yet relatively such a small percentage of the total economy that it simply can’t cause inflation.
With apologies for cross-posting, but for folks who have not subscribed to Cory’s newsletter:
Uber was never going to be profitable. Never. It lured drivers and riders into cars by subsidizing rides with billions and billions of dollars from the Saudi royal family, keeping up the con-artist’s ever-shifting patter about how all of this would some day stand on its own.
Like the pretense that self-driving cars would eliminate all their labor costs. They knew this would never happen. They spent billions on a doomed effort, then had to bribe another company with a $400m “investment” to take its window-dressing away.
Pluralistic: 08 Dec 2020 – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Uber didn’t need self-driving cars - it needed us to think it would have self-driving cars. That way the company’s Saudi owners could raise investment capital from subsequent “investors” (AKA “suckers”) all the way up to the IPO, cash out, and walk away, whistling innocently…
ETA: grammar
FB has been running ads about “regulation reform” on Hulu in the NoVaDC area for a few weeks now. Tiresome.
And the minute it gets wet it will delaminate, swell up and crumble, or warp wildly.
Not to mention Ikea’s problems with their products’ tipping hazards…
I sympathize with anyone who got sold a bill of goods when taking on higher education, but this is a great start.
Tenacious Unicorn Ranch!
In an America hostile to queer and trans people, the ranch is evolving into a rare, radical blueprint for securing agency and joy in wide-open rural spaces through strong community support. The timing couldn’t be more urgent, with homelessness and violence rising sharply in the trans community in recent years. It’s what propelled Nelson to join Penny as a co-owner in the endeavor just months after joining the ranch.
“It’s a very hard life to be trans by yourself. I started to transition ten and a half years ago, and I had zero community until I left New York and joined this place,” Nelson says. “I don’t think Penny knew whether I’d be useful, [but] the ranch gave me a job, a home, and a way to help other trans people up.”
Sucks to hear though about the fascist threats they’ve been dealing with.
I’m glad they’re better prepared to deal with them and remaining vigilant. Sadly, that tactic of threats and violence never goes away. It’s great to see they are expanding and setting up other safe spaces, too. There’s a need in every region of the country.
This article made me very happy. Thank you for posting this.
Glad they are safe. Sad that the story didn’t involve building a giant robot to fly them out of Kabul.
