To quote The Economist, the new American socialist “is not a cuddly Scandinavian social democrat who would let companies do their thing and then tax them to build a better world. Instead, he believes American capitalism is rapacious and needs to be radically weakened.” But what’s wrong with opting for the cuddly way of market-friendly welfare states?…Of course, the socialists have an answer.
“Around the world, forests are shrinking due to deforestation, urban development and climate change, but in Europe that trend has been reversed. …Large areas of the continent have seen a forest boom that means today more than two-fifths of Europe is tree-covered. Between 1990 and 2015, the area covered by forests and woodlands increased by 90,000 square kilometres - an area roughly the size of Portugal.”
— Europe bucks global deforestation trend, Johnny Wood/World Economic Forum July 25, 2019
A few years ago, social scientists Tom Hirschl and Mark Rank analyzed individual income trends in the US population and found that most American workers moved up the socioeconomic ladder as they got older. Based on their findings, Hirschl and Rank estimated that by age 60, almost 70 percent of the working population would experience at least one year in the top 20 percent of US income distribution and about half would spend a total of at least four years there. Wow – that’s a lot of social mobility…Who are these people?
I live in the heart of Progressive America, where the populace has become unhinged at the prospect of another four years of the Trump administration. Just yesterday, a friend described the President as “an existential threat to the US”. And earlier this month a neighbor’s mass email ended on this cheerful note: “If we don't change our leaders and enact progressive policies, we are doomed.”
To which I say: People, get a grip!
Earnings tend to increase with age. Thus, full-time workers at the top of the earnings distribution for any given education level will be mostly middle-aged or older. Of course, education level is only part of the story of what we earn over time: occupation, skills, work behaviors, ambition, and luck matter too.
Hmmm, sounds like CEOs are being paid too much and American workers are being paid way too little. But before jumping to conclusions, let’s do a little digging. For example, what is actually meant by “median worker pay”? To its credit, the Sanders campaign site provides a link to the source of the claim re S&P 500 CEOs: the AFL-CIO.
Two observations: 1) California’s top income tax rate (combined federal, state and local) is quite Nordic; and 2) in the Nordic countries, the top rate applies to the high end of middle-class incomes. In other words…
Note that every developed country with a universal healthcare system requires out-of-pocket spending, such as co-pays. And most of these systems have gatekeepers, such as primary care physicians, who control access to medical specialists. Consider the Scandinavian countries:
We resort to the brute force of willpower when when we have failed to avoid exposure to temptations. Willpower often works in these situations, but it can be exhausting. Willpower works best when used sparingly…Better smart self-control than hard self-control.
Note that individual income tax revenue was below 8% of GDP during the 1950s and early 1960s, when the top marginal income tax rate was over 90%. The top income tax rate has stayed within the narrow range of 35-39.6% since 1987 and yet over the same period income tax revenues have gyrated from 6-10% of GDP. Now for the real shocker:
The following stats are care of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), part of the U.S. Department of Justice. First, data on time served in state prisons, based on prison release records for 2016 from 44 states…So, how are US prisoners doing upon release? Turns out, not so good. This from a BJS nine-year follow-up study of state prisoners…
That’s almost 30% more beef produced per cow since 1961. And yet the amount of land devoted to livestock pasture has been declining for the past twenty years…How did we do it?
Here’s how the Niskanen Center describes their approach to policy-making: “We are globalists who share progressives’ desire to robustly address economic and social inequality, liberals’ commitment to toleration and civil liberties, moderates’ embrace of empiricism rather than dogma, conservatives’ belief in the wealth creating power of free markets, and libertarians’ skepticism about the ability of technocratic elites to solve complex economic and social problems.”
Republicans used to be more gung-ho about saving endangered species and other environmental causes, e.g., a Republican president established the Environmental Protection Agency and the late, great John McCain fought many battles to protect natural habitats. But then the ardor cooled. Why was that?
“President Trump made 16,241 false or misleading claims in his first three years” - Headline/ Washington Post January 20, 2020
What are we to make of the above headline? That Trump says a lot of things that just ain’t so. Then again, politicians exaggerate, lie and mislead all the time. …Is Trump that much worse than, say, Bernie Sanders in the untruth-telling department? Time to get the ol’ calculator out.
Depending on the scenario, average global temperatures may rise anywhere from less than 2°F to over 9°F by 2100 (.9°C – 5.4°C). The question is how to plan for such a range of possible climate futures? I offer some thoughts from people who make a living pondering this very question:
“Uncertain changes in climate, technological, socio-economic and political situations, and the dynamic interaction among these changes, and between these changes and interventions, pose a challenge to planners and decision-makers. Due to these uncertainties, there is a risk of making an inappropriate decision (too little, too much, too soon, or too late).” Kwakkel, J. H., M. Haasnoot, et al., 2016.
These measures include: increasing ocean carbon uptake (thereby reducing atmospheric CO2); utilizing solar energy to convert greenhouse gases into renewable fuels; adding biochar to soils; restoration of wetlands…
Note that I’m not endorsing some measures over others. None of the above measures are mature technologies and none should be excluded from consideration. As energy systems engineer and Princeton professor Jesse Jenkins put it:
“If we’re really in a ‘climate crisis,’ then you go to war with your full arsenal, you don’t hold anything back. And you don’t purposefully make this crisis harder by limiting our already limited options.”
Per the IPCC glossary, decarbonisation (British spelling) aims to achieve “zero fossil carbon existence” and typically refers to a reduction of the carbon emissions associated with electricity, industry and transport. Examples include methanisation, biomass co-firing, carbon capture and storage, and many more. Here’s a list of 18 decarbonisation measures…
Climate change mitigation pathways are a series of measures taken to reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions or to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Demand-side measures are policies and programs for influencing the demand for goods and/or services. Without further ado, here are 17 demand-side measures found in the 2018 IPCC report, “Mitigation pathways compatible with 1.5°C in the context of sustainable development”…