Recently, Arnold Kling posted a list of Klingisms, which is worth a look. One caught my eye in particular:

Just listened to a very interesting EconTalk episode with Ed Dolan. He outlines a healthcare approach that seems, first blush, an interesting option for the US. 

I have recently been reading Steven Hill’s Raw Deal, a mix of useful policy recommendations and ranty polemic against the gig economy. During one section he mentions, in an aside, the situation a few folks have suggested, where a private firm cherry picks the best bus routes in a city, depriving transport authorities from much needed revenue and while exploiting the infrastructure maintained by the public. Hill points to San Francisco where this had already started happening.

Astronomer Royal Martin Rees gave a Long Now SALT talk last night around the topics in his new book, On The Future, which covers long term threats and opportunities for humanity. One of the approaches I found particularly interesting was being explicit about the discount rates applied when considering different kinds of preventative measures. 

As the job market changes, one way people can maintain or grow their incomes is by pivoting to more in-demands fields. For all the automation and expansion, relatively few people are unemployed (joblessness is a somewhat different boat), and most industries are unable to hire all the people they would like due to lack of appropriate candidates.

From an introduction to consumption:

From Lever of Riches, talking about the impact of the state and state structures on diffusion of innovations:

A great conversation over the new year got me thinking about the types of consumption that we have, as individuals. There is a kind of spending and investment of time that is really about improving our productivity and career outcomes: training, reading in certain areas, buying tools, and spending on enabling technologies like cars or personal task trackers. 

I can’t really do any justice to Jenny Odell’s great piece in the New York Times about a bizarre network of ventures, so if you (like me) didn’t see it when it came out, please go read. 

Part of the larger social contract forged over the 20th century was a set of a benefits: unemployment insurance, healthcare, workers compensation, and paid time off for vacation or for illness.