Top of the List
- Sen. Bernie Sanders, Washington’s Dangerous New Consensus on China
The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has rightly recognized the rise of authoritarianism as a major threat to democracy. The primary conflict between democracy and authoritarianism, however, is taking place not between countries but within them—including in the United States. And if democracy is going to win out, it will do so not on a traditional battlefield but by demonstrating that democracy can actually deliver a better quality of life for people than authoritarianism can.
- Russell Arben Fox, Regarding Mutualism, Cooperativism, and Other (Interstitially) Anti-Capitalist Alternative
What is meant by mutualism and cooperativism, and why should they be understood as standing distinct from the usual capitalist routines of our economy? The simplest answer is that any organization of economic activity that has woven egalitarian and communitarian practices into their daily operations—whether in terms of ownership, production, decision-making, pricing, wage scales, distribution, or anything else—is, to one degree or another, pursuing a path which gives place to something other than profit-maximization and consumer-individuation, and thus is departing from the ideal capitalist form. That doesn’t mean that profit and consumption never matter to communes or co-ops or credit unions or anything else crowd-sourced; the human desires and pressures that give rise to markets can’t ever, and shouldn’t ever, be ignored… “Private property is an aberration, though under the conditions of fallen human society…a necessary arrangement.”
- Maanvi Singh, ‘Potentially the worst drought in 1,200 years’: scientists on the scorching US heatwave
It’s surreal to see your models become real life.
Also Worth Reading
- U.S.-Russia Presidential Joint Statement on Strategic Stability
- Not Just Bikes, Suburbs that don’t Suck (“There is nothing inherently wrong with suburbs. The problem is car-dependent suburbs.”)
- Tom Philpott, White People Own 98 Percent of Rural Land. Young Black Farmers Want to Reclaim Their Share.
- Jesse Eisinger, Jeff Ernsthausen, and Paul Kiel, The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax
- Ezra Klein, What the Rich Don’t Want to Admit About the Poor