Which, if you'll note, Trump is very publicly trying to do. Multiple meetings with billionaires, some coming out in support.

Here's the actual interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWqvaMEFIdI

Domenico Losurdo is such an underrated writer. Reading his works is such a refreshing experience with the ease of how he cuts through capitalist bullshit. His intellectual biography of Nietzsche is one of the best I've ever read, his Liberalism: A Counterhistory is hilariously powerful in destroying liberalism as a political ideology, just an amazing scholar.

This is a tired subject. As Deng said, "Poverty is not socialism." Do not fall into the Western Marxist trap of conflating the Christian veneration of poverty with communism. You live under capitalism, use it. If you have the finances to invest and secure a future for yourself, do it. It's not a sin to have money and be a communist, it doesn't make your political beliefs less "pure," this kind of thinking is imbued with residual Christianity that should be rooted out. There's a huge difference between "I work for Lockheed Martin and invest in oil companies" and "I buy index funds so maybe I can retire one day."

What's more crazy about this is mask wearing on the subway is actually pretty common. A solid 10% of people still wear masks on the trains every day. It's not weird, and literally nobody in New York thinks "omg this person next to me is a criminal with a mask." Dems just gotta Dem I guess.

I mean the LTV is integral to how like capitalism and exploitation work, so the only "debunking" that ever happens around it is things like "hey why do things cost different prices at different times, markets and exchange are what create value not labour!" which is a point that Marx himself in Capital Vol. 1 calmly explains has no bearing on the LTV. You can't debunk the labour theory of value unless you think humans doing stuff to things isn't what creates value, which is frankly nonsense.

This doesn't have any numbers! Yes, 300k workers commute to Manhattan by car. Who are those workers? Where are they from? How much do they make? Overwhelming they're vastly richer than those that take transit, and mostly from outside the city entirely. As we've tried to explain, the overwhelming majority of the working class in NYC does not own a car at all, and their daily lives will be made far better by a lessened presence of cars in the place where they work. The working class of NYC may not all live in Manhattan, but a good very many do commute to Manhattan and walk around during the week. Implementing a congestion charge reduces pollution and pedestrian deaths, both of which affect way more workers than the small amount of who may happen to drive into Manhattan.

EDIT: Of course you're linking to a Trotskyist rag that doesn't use any numbers outside of just telling me that 300k workers (again, that number is mostly wealthy people who can afford to park in Manhattan; parking alone is like $20 an hour, this has been shown by various different studies that the working class by and large does not drive into Manhattan) commute to Manhattan without examining what workers.

But we're talking about transit in New York City. About implementing congestion pricing in New York City. Yes, congestion pricing in most places in the Untied States is a regressive tax on the poorest. That is not the case in New York City.

OK but you see how this is not really a solution, right? This is the ultraleft position of "if we can't do the best possible thing we shouldn't do anything at all." Congestion pricing discourages cars from entering the city and is a step towards a private car ban. The MTA does not control the bridges or tunnels into Manhattan, that's the Port Authority, so they're not in a position to ever ban or affect cars entering or exit the city. There's no like perverse incentive this creates on the part of the MTA to support cars because they have no policy levers to do so.

Yeah the studies I linked show that it's not just folks who live in Manhattan, most workers commuting into Manhattan don't drive cars, and those that do are disproportionately wealthy.

Yeah your last point is correct, which is why having a congestion price that just makes it harder to drive with no increase in transit is stupid. Luckily that's not the case here, the congestion pricing is directly tied to expanding transit options for workers to get into the city.

Also note that in Manhattan there is already a service charge tacked on to all Ubers, and you need to be a licensed cab driver by the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission to drive an Uber in the first place. It's not like other places in the United States where anybody can be an Uber driver.

At least as far as New York City goes this is wrong. Car ownership in the city is correlated with income; the poorer you are the more likely you are to not own a car and instead take public transit to work. https://wellango.github.io/posts/2021/06/who-owns-cars-in-nyc/

There have been repeated studies (see https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2007/11/02/fact-check-congestion-pricing-is-not-a-regressive-tax or https://citylimits.org/2017/09/07/debate-fact-check-is-congestion-pricing-regressive/) that in NYC congestion pricing would not be a regressive tax, and in fact would be progressive given the composition of car ownership in the city. Couple this with the fact that less cars means a more pleasant experience for those walking and taking transit (the vast majority of New Yorkers, especially amongst the poor) it's clear that congestion pricing would be a good thing.

Cowardice to the most insane degree. The one good thing that I was looking forward to is gone. Infinite jihad against Hochul.

It's insane how true this is. Even when Democrats have a full mandate and complete ability to actually do good things they are functionally incapable of doing anything good. I am now issuing a fatwa against Governor Hochul.

Cannot overstate how embarrassing this is. This was supposed to be the policy that gets the MTA working again. Widely supported by New Yorkers (like 66%+ support). Would have an immediate impact on millions of people.

Yo what the fuck. Obviously Democratic governors are cowardly and suck etc etc but Hochul just "indefinitely delayed" congestion pricing in New York City, the one good policy on the horizon for New York and something that would have made my day to day living experience infinitely more delightful. This was due to go into effect in 25 days. It's been planned for years. Would've reduced traffic and air pollution in Manhattan by a lot. Cowards. https://abc7ny.com/post/congestion-pricing-nyc-kathy-hochul-start-delay/14912968/

Fujimoto is a real one for dedicating a whole chapter to this shit. It's been coming for a while now, the whole series has been building up to this moment, but god damn.

Absolutely get an fiduciary financial advisor. Make sure they are a fiduciary (ie they have a legal obligation to work in your best interest). You should not be storing most of this in a bank. Instead, your fiduciary will recommend you split it between very safe government bonds that return ~5% a year and some stocks/corporate bonds. But please seek out a fee-only fiduciary financial advisor, don't listen to anything we say here outside of this advice. Make sure they are a fiduciary.

The temperature in Delhi the other day was insane, glad it wasn't humid since it's only a matter of time before north India starts hitting wet bulb temps and thousands drop dead in the streets. Hope you can get out soon friend, it's such a shame it never took the Chinese path. Such a vibrant place.