economics
Cost disease: Why everything is so damn expensive
There's a deeper cause than greed or inefficiency.
What would it take to raise the birth rate?
The world's fertility woes may have a treatable cause.
The second arts and crafts revolution
It's never been easier to learn DIY skills.
How do we fix work/life balance for parents?
We'd all benefit if more jobs were compatible with raising a family.
The idle society
Would universal basic income lead to Star Trek utopia, or Brave New World hedonism?
Is oligarchy the human condition?
Let's stop pretending that this is a departure from the norm.
Why degrowth is wrong
Degrowth is a cramped, pessimistic vision of the future. Fortunately, it’s also wrong.
What degrowth is, and why it matters
Against cultures of planned obsolescence.
Good robots, bad robots, and the future of work
You say 'the robots will take our jobs' like it's a bad thing.
The blind, dangerous enthusiasm of a ‘Techno-Optimist’
Billionaire Marc Andreessen’s Techno-Optimist Manifesto makes the case that technology is a pure blessing, that more is always better, and it shouldn’t be regulated or held back by anyone or anything. Here’s a skeptical counterpoint.
Eco-friendly transportation? The good, the bad, and the pipe dreams
The saying about putting a fox in charge of the hen house grossly underestimates human ingenuity. We are not foxes, and so we have the ability to be much cleverer custodians of institutions we’re still destroying.
Is real carbon sequestration possible under capitalism?
Reading Time: 11 minutes Given the incentives in capitalism, the “stick” approach to climate change isn’t working. Could a new currency provide a carrot to reframe our priorities?