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Category[Slow Boring]

Jamaica’s nuclear future [Matthew Yglesias, Slow Boring]

By William McClain
In [Slow Boring]
February 22, 2023
253 views
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  • Happy President’s Day! – This week is a holiday for D.C. Public Schools, so the family is spending it in Jamaica.
  • Jamaican Politics – Prime Minister Andrew Holness is pushing forward with plans to ditch the monarchy and become a republic.
  • Vacation Mailbag – Noah Smith wrote a post just before Christmas on Jamaica’s economic development, and the tl;dr is that Jamaica hasn’t managed to get on the manufacturing train to complement tourism.
  • Bauxite Mining – Jamaica doesn’t make aluminum because they don’t have enough electricity, and electricity prices in Jamaica are high.
  • Small Island Problems – Islands are vulnerable to climate change, have limited interregional power transmission, and are too small to support multiple competing oil refineries.
  • Renewables in the Caribbean – Renewables are pollution-free, but they take up a lot of land and the market is just not large enough to support them.
  • Energy Middle Income-ness – Jamaica needs the ability to consume much more energy. They have low motor vehicle per capita, air conditioning is rare, and they suffer from water insecurity.
  • In Search of a Can Opener – There is no magical solution to the energy scarcity problem, but it’s important to take all dimensions of the energy problem seriously.
  • Industry Higher Up the Value Chain: Developing countries need more energy to get richer and cope with climate change. This will enable them to access more cars and air conditioners, and improve their quality of life. Air conditioning can also help kids learn more in school and improve productivity in private industry.
  • In Search of a Can Opener: There is no magical solution to the energy scarcity problem, but it is important to take all dimensions of the problem seriously.
  • Nuclear Power: Advanced microreactor designs could be built and operated much more cheaply than traditional large light-water reactors. The existing American regulatory framework is poorly designed to give them a chance.
  • Jamaica Could Do the World a Favor: Jamaica has its own nuclear regulatory agency and Charlyne Smith, a Jamaican-born nuclear engineer. Striking a deal with one or several nuclear startups could be beneficial to Jamaica and the world.
  • U.S. Population Density: When discussing population density, it is best to discuss the contiguous U.S. including all 50 states. This does not actually change the population density much, but it eliminates Alaskan objections.

Published February 20, 2023
Visit Slow Boring to read Matthew Yglesias’s original post Jamaica’s nuclear future

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Progressives need to engage with the specific questions about youth gender care [Matthew Yglesias, Slow Boring]

By Spencer Chen
In [Slow Boring]
February 16, 2023
252 views
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• Jamelle Bouie wrote a powerful column titled “There Is No Dignity in This Kind of America” which examines conservative attacks on trans people in America.
• Bouie argues that the denial of dignity to one segment of the political community threatens the dignity of all, and calls for solidarity.
• Chris Hayes wrote a column urging Joe Biden to address America’s low and declining life expectancy, which is largely due to the opioid epidemic.
• The opioid epidemic was caused by pharmaceutical companies’ deceptive marketing of new opioid painkillers, and doctors’ overprescription of opioids.
• Mainstream liberal commentators are avoiding the details of the policy questions surrounding trans rights, such as the politicization of medical treatment for children, biological males competing in women’s sports, and physical transitioning at a young age.
• Affirmation of an equal right to human dignity does not determine a unique answer to all of these questions, and facts are important.
• NYT Opinion published the results of a focus group headlined “These 12 Transgender Americans Would Love You To Mind Your Own Business”, which highlights the need for trans people to be treated with dignity and respect.
• The focus group discussed the controversial issue of puberty-blocking medications, which are used off-label to treat gender dysphoria in minors.
• The current World Professional Association for Transgender Health recommendations say that hormones can be started at age 14 and some surgeries done at age 15 or 17.
• Reuters investigated gender clinics and found that most are comfortable prescribing puberty blockers or hormones based on the first visit, if there are no red flags and the child and parents are in agreement.
• Asking questions is important, but it must be done in good faith and with the aim of discovering answers grounded in facts.
• The rapid increase in the number of children identifying as trans raises questions about the extent to which gender-affirming medications have been clinically studied, the actual operation of clinics, and the concept of affirming children.
• There is also the question of why the increase is preponderantly among people with XX chromosomes.

Published February 16, 2023
Visit Slow Boring to read Matthew Yglesias’s original post Progressives need to engage with the specific questions about youth gender care

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Why you can’t trust the media [Matthew Yglesias, Slow Boring]

By Spencer Chen
In [Slow Boring]
February 15, 2023
268 views
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• The media is often blamed for declining trust, but there is little evidence that it has gotten worse since the pre-Vietnam era.
• In the past, journalists often collaborated with government officials to mislead people, and didn’t report on JFK’s affairs or FDR’s paralysis.
• Today, the media landscape is much more competitive, and mistakes are widely publicized.
• The main problem is that the news-reading audience doesn’t care about accuracy, and is more interested in cheap talk and fandom-style interest.
• Examples of this include the criticism of 538’s election forecasts, and the criticism of CNN’s “mostly peaceful” chyron.

Published February 15, 2023
Visit Slow Boring to read Matthew Yglesias’s original post Why you can’t trust the media

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Don’t give up on police reform [Matthew Yglesias, Slow Boring]

By Spencer Chen
In [Slow Boring]
February 14, 2023
239 views
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• Reactions to the video of Tyre Nichols’ apparent murder at the hands of Memphis Police Department officers were understandably strong.
• D’Zhane Parker from the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation put out a statement bluntly saying Nichols’ death “affirms what we’ve known all along: Reform doesn’t work.”
• Major changes for the better have occurred in the history of American policing, including anti-corruption measures and a shift in understanding of what police officers should be doing.
• Rep. Summer Lee appeared on Face The Nation and said “less than 2% of police officers who are engaged in misconduct are ever indicted at all.”
• Body cams generate evidence that can inform investigations after police shoot someone, and can bolster police legitimacy by demonstrating that they’re not just making stuff up.
• Alex Vitale’s book “The End of Policing” notes that successful reform is good, and that reformers need to identify and publicize good ideas and remind people that change is possible.
• Rachel Cohen’s article on body cams suggests they lead to an approximate 10% reduction in police use of force.
• Evidence suggests that a sustained allegation against a police officer reduces their future misconduct, and that routine increases in oversight lead to less misconduct and no change in crime.
• Reform of police misconduct is hard, not because of technical aspects, but because it requires time and effort to convince people to change the standards.
• Diversifying police forces can help ameliorate racial bias, but it requires money and social capital to encourage people to want the job.
• Holding officers to a higher standard of conduct will cost more money, not less.
• Taking the need for quality policing seriously and investing the time and money to do it is the best approach, rather than throwing one’s hands up and declaring the whole thing hopeless.

Published February 14, 2023
Visit Slow Boring to read Matthew Yglesias’s original post Don’t give up on police reform

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Commemorate history, don’t preserve old buildings [Matthew Yglesias, Slow Boring]

By Spencer Chen
In [Slow Boring]
February 6, 2023
299 views
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• Washington D.C. has a grim land use situation near the Cleveland Park Metro station, where a low-rise strip mall is designated for historic preservation.
• This strip mall is an inappropriate use of the land given present-day economics and the existence of the metro station.
• In Chicago, a plaque commemorates the place where Barack and Michelle Obama shared their first kiss after their first date.
• Cities should invest more in telling their stories, such as installing signs in parks to explain who the park is named after and why.
• Mandating that old buildings stay up rather than be replaced as economics shift is very costly.
• It can be inconvenient not to have a level entry to your house, and regulations have benefits as well as costs.
• The city of D.C. has created a series of “neighborhood heritage trail” walking tours that bring you to various informational signs about the history of the neighborhood.
• The author suggests investing in more signage to tell the story of every park and school in every neighborhood of the city.
• The author also suggests redeveloping old buildings to create more subsidized housing units.

Published February 6, 2023
Visit Slow Boring to read Matthew Yglesias’s original post Commemorate history, don’t preserve old buildings

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Americans have been gaining weight for as long as records exist [Matthew Yglesias, Slow Boring]

By Spencer Chen
In [Slow Boring]
February 2, 2023
238 views
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• Obesity has been a growing problem since the late 19th century, not just since 1980.
• The population aging has a mechanical impact on average obesity that is unrelated to changes in diet and nutrition.
• The average Americans’ weight change since the 1980s is startling, but the data suggests a much more boring story about a long-term increase in average weight punctuated by the Great Depression and World War II.
• Food insecurity was incredibly common for most of human history, but now spending on groceries has plummeted as a share of household spending.
• Food is also better across many dimensions of betterness, from ultra-processed junk food to home cooking.
• The downside to living in a society with a great deal of material abundance is that it is much less common to need to choose between going hungry and eating something you don’t like.

Published February 2, 2023
Visit Slow Boring to read Matthew Yglesias’s original post Americans have been gaining weight for as long as records exist

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Recent layoffs at Big Tech don’t spell economic doom [Matthew Yglesias, Slow Boring]

By Spencer Chen
In [Slow Boring]
January 30, 2023
166 views
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• Emily Stewart is a writer for Vox who wrote a piece about how widespread layoffs in the tech and media sectors don’t necessarily foretell broader problems in the economy.
• The next day, Vox Media announced layoffs of approximately 7% of the company’s staff, which some people used as an opportunity to dunk on Stewart.
• Stewart points out that the widespread attention given to the Vox layoffs illustrates her point.
• She explains that the media industry is an extreme outlier in terms of attention paid versus objective economic significance.
• Stewart notes that there has never been a month that didn’t feature a million people losing their jobs, and that since the pandemic settled down, we’ve been in a two-year period of structurally low layoffs.
• She also points out that big tech companies have been super-sizing at an incredible pace, and that now that they’re contracting, lots of places would like to hire engineers.
• Stewart suggests that the upside of the layoffs is that it will make it easier for people who have startup ideas to get them off the ground, and that it will also make it easier for government agencies to use signing bonuses and other private sector tactics to attract and retain labor.

Published January 30, 2023
Visit Slow Boring to read Matthew Yglesias’s original post Recent layoffs at Big Tech don’t spell economic doom

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Republicans can’t even explain what they’re trying to do with the debt ceiling [Matthew Yglesias, Slow Boring]

By Spencer Chen
In [Slow Boring]
January 26, 2023
175 views
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• Republicans are instigating a debt ceiling drama without any real interest in the national debt or deficit reduction.
• Trump, Vance, and Mace have all ruled out cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and the Freedom Caucus rejected Manchin’s proposal for a bipartisan commission.
• There is an established process for cutting discretionary spending, but Republicans have not taken advantage of it.
• Ryan and Trump wanted to cut Medicaid, but the ACA expansion put a stop to that.
• A bipartisan commission could be a good idea, but it would require Republicans to agree to tax increases.
• The Chicago Model of issuing high-coupon bonds could be a promising way for the executive branch to keep the country running.

Published January 26, 2023
Visit Slow Boring to read Matthew Yglesias’s original post Republicans can’t even explain what they’re trying to do with the debt ceiling

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Joe Biden’s conditional optimism about America [Matthew Yglesias, Slow Boring]

By Spencer Chen
In [Slow Boring]
January 24, 2023
155 views
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• Joe Biden sees America as beset by a crisis of self-confidence, and believes that with the country’s advantages, it can surmount problems and lead the world if united.
• Biden’s ability to demonstrate profound interpersonal empathy serves him in the work of presidenting, as he works with his opponents’ genuine desires and sees the world through their eyes.
• Biden’s approach to domestic legislation is based on understanding Republicans’ actual needs, and he has been able to wring a considerable amount of legislative juice out of unpromisingly small majorities.
• Biden is attempting to maintain a strategic advantage for the democratic bloc in key areas like chips and artificial intelligence, while understanding the need to manage all aspects of the situation and only get into dealmaking mode when it would be constructive.
• Biden has the smallest cultural footprint of any American president of my lifetime, and his project of unifying the country has to take place on a social and psychological level.
• Biden needs to be more present in our lives, more outspokenly normal, and more encouraging of other people to be more outspoken about their normal views.

Published January 24, 2023
Visit Slow Boring to read Matthew Yglesias’s original post Joe Biden’s conditional optimism about America

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America needs more Class VI wells [Matthew Yglesias, Slow Boring]

By Spencer Chen
In [Slow Boring]
January 19, 2023
270 views
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• Public support for action on climate change is broad, but people are disinclined to be personally inconvenienced for the sake of the issue.
• Even if progressive jurisdictions ban new natural gas hookups, people will still be buying new gas appliances 15-20 years from now and those appliances will still be running 30-40 years from now.
• California is planning to ban the sale of new internal combustion engine cars in 2035, but ICE cars will still be on the road in 2050.
• Carbon capture technology exists at a small scale, but it is too expensive to solve the huge problems.
• The Inflation Reduction Act created financial incentives to deploy carbon capture technology, but the EPA needs to move on licensing Class VI wells or creating more state primacy deals.
• Carbon capture has been controversial for years in the environmental community, but it is important to keep in mind that lower-income Democrats were very upset about rising energy costs last year.
• Carbon capture could be used to make natural gas + carbon capture a cost-effective means of generating zero-carbon electricity.
• There is no perfect way to make electricity, and all energy sources have their own costs and benefits.
• Solar and wind power are not necessarily more virtuous than other sources such as carbon capture, nuclear, and geothermal.
• To make renewables work at a large scale, we need to build lots more transmission lines, batteries, and lithium mines.
• Even if we had an all-renewables grid, we would still need solutions for agriculture, industry, aviation, and maritime shipping.
• Carbon capture may be the solution to these problems, but we need to have the infrastructure in place to take advantage of it.ement on nature.

Published January 19, 2023
Visit Slow Boring to read Matthew Yglesias’s original post America needs more Class VI wells

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