High-minded people like to say we can talk about people, things, or ideas. Maybe we should add that we can talk about people only the speaker knows, people known to both, or people who are acquaintances or better of both.
Yes, staffers and toadies willingly join a cult of celebrity around their (usually) not very impressive boss. They’ve drunk the Kool-Aid. This perplexes anyone outside the bubble.
This happens in many large bureaucracies, including corporations. The toadies fawning over the CEO are embarrassing.
"Yes, staffers and toadies willingly join a cult of celebrity around their (usually) not very impressive boss. They’ve drunk the Kool-Aid."
Did you read the post? No doubt there's a grain of truth in this but I don't see how you could think this a bigger motivator than what's described in the post.
And depending on the politician, I bet many staffers think they are as unimpressive as you do.
“Some day, the politicians who are kicking the can of the national debt and unfunded Social Security and Medicare obligations are going to come to the end of the road.”
I seriously doubt it. There will be not a “bankruptcy”, but probably taxes will increased (not to European levels, but high) and inflationary melting and persistent financial repression will allow for smooth transition. Malaise, stagnation, but probably nobody will notices because the rest or the world will be worse. Not with a bang but a whimper…
With uniform rate? It is a blind tax on total income, it is easy to enforce (for each invoice there is a part in the transaction with an incentive to report). It Does not discriminate between capital and labour, nor among sectors. Value added is the only real taxable thing: the real production, at the time it is produced. In macro terms, the real neutral tax. Only Georgist land taxes and carbon taxes are better!
I wonder if the present transition away from cash and toward digital payment will asymptotically approach "no cash", and at some point the government will (carrot) guarantee everyone a bank account and (stick) require it to be used for all payment. After which, "financial repression" will be easier. The government will "borrow" money from people's accounts without their permission and pay back (if ever) at below market rates.
That could easily happen, but I could see it not being in the governments best interest.
In most dysfunctional states, you need some kind of black market in order to society to function. In for instance the dysfunctional world of childcare there is an entire black market of cash pay nannies.
There are certain goods and services that can't scale, and since they can't scale they have to be done at the level of merely human efficiency. They can't be taxed or regulated too much before they are so non functional they need to go black market.
No doubt lots of people fit this description, but surely not all who cross paths with celebrities. Editors work hard not to substitute their positions for those they serve, but take pleasure in helping them express their own thoughts better.
Will the modern WOKE economists succeed in killing the golden goose of innovation in all relevant areas required for humanity to progress? The command and control via regulations put them in the drivers seat.
How many thousands more of these creatures exist today than in 1973?
What's the cost of having these (I'm sure many sharp minds) tempered in the heady scene of "public service" fandom vs the world of private sector enterprise of winning over customers?
“I would add something to Greer’s stereotype. I think that there is also a starstruck mentality as well. Just as in LA, where somebody who has met a famous movie director or star will not fail to let you know about it, somebody in DC who has met an important public official will be sure to bring it up in conversation.”
Arnold - Would you like to hear about the time my wife and I sat next to Steve Jobs and Jony Ive while eating lunch together at the One Infinite Loop Cade Macs? We Silicon Valley types aren’t that different from DC staffers or Hollywood movie studio employees.
A month or two later Steve was dead. As we were driving down Winchester Blvd in San Jose my wife and I received this terrible news over the radio. We both cried on the spot. I still cry about it. We read his biography out loud together, cover to cover in our tiny Silicon Valley home not long after.
Everyone in that cafe was hopeful, but obviously he didn’t make it.
Maybe we shouldn’t be, but for many of us, especially when we’re young, status is God.
High-minded people like to say we can talk about people, things, or ideas. Maybe we should add that we can talk about people only the speaker knows, people known to both, or people who are acquaintances or better of both.
Yes, staffers and toadies willingly join a cult of celebrity around their (usually) not very impressive boss. They’ve drunk the Kool-Aid. This perplexes anyone outside the bubble.
This happens in many large bureaucracies, including corporations. The toadies fawning over the CEO are embarrassing.
"Yes, staffers and toadies willingly join a cult of celebrity around their (usually) not very impressive boss. They’ve drunk the Kool-Aid."
Did you read the post? No doubt there's a grain of truth in this but I don't see how you could think this a bigger motivator than what's described in the post.
And depending on the politician, I bet many staffers think they are as unimpressive as you do.
One has to wonder about Biden's toadies.
Seems likely to pay off for one named Harris.
“Some day, the politicians who are kicking the can of the national debt and unfunded Social Security and Medicare obligations are going to come to the end of the road.”
I seriously doubt it. There will be not a “bankruptcy”, but probably taxes will increased (not to European levels, but high) and inflationary melting and persistent financial repression will allow for smooth transition. Malaise, stagnation, but probably nobody will notices because the rest or the world will be worse. Not with a bang but a whimper…
Let's hope the Fed sticks to FAIT and that the taxes that are raised are a VAT.
I've never understood the attraction of VAT.
With uniform rate? It is a blind tax on total income, it is easy to enforce (for each invoice there is a part in the transaction with an incentive to report). It Does not discriminate between capital and labour, nor among sectors. Value added is the only real taxable thing: the real production, at the time it is produced. In macro terms, the real neutral tax. Only Georgist land taxes and carbon taxes are better!
I wonder if the present transition away from cash and toward digital payment will asymptotically approach "no cash", and at some point the government will (carrot) guarantee everyone a bank account and (stick) require it to be used for all payment. After which, "financial repression" will be easier. The government will "borrow" money from people's accounts without their permission and pay back (if ever) at below market rates.
That could easily happen, but I could see it not being in the governments best interest.
In most dysfunctional states, you need some kind of black market in order to society to function. In for instance the dysfunctional world of childcare there is an entire black market of cash pay nannies.
There are certain goods and services that can't scale, and since they can't scale they have to be done at the level of merely human efficiency. They can't be taxed or regulated too much before they are so non functional they need to go black market.
No doubt lots of people fit this description, but surely not all who cross paths with celebrities. Editors work hard not to substitute their positions for those they serve, but take pleasure in helping them express their own thoughts better.
Will the modern WOKE economists succeed in killing the golden goose of innovation in all relevant areas required for humanity to progress? The command and control via regulations put them in the drivers seat.
How many thousands more of these creatures exist today than in 1973?
What's the cost of having these (I'm sure many sharp minds) tempered in the heady scene of "public service" fandom vs the world of private sector enterprise of winning over customers?
“I would add something to Greer’s stereotype. I think that there is also a starstruck mentality as well. Just as in LA, where somebody who has met a famous movie director or star will not fail to let you know about it, somebody in DC who has met an important public official will be sure to bring it up in conversation.”
Arnold - Would you like to hear about the time my wife and I sat next to Steve Jobs and Jony Ive while eating lunch together at the One Infinite Loop Cade Macs? We Silicon Valley types aren’t that different from DC staffers or Hollywood movie studio employees.
A month or two later Steve was dead. As we were driving down Winchester Blvd in San Jose my wife and I received this terrible news over the radio. We both cried on the spot. I still cry about it. We read his biography out loud together, cover to cover in our tiny Silicon Valley home not long after.
Everyone in that cafe was hopeful, but obviously he didn’t make it.
Maybe we shouldn’t be, but for many of us, especially when we’re young, status is God.
In no particular order of greater interest than celebrity of the politicians one gets to associate with:
Desire to make a difference.
Desire to move up the pecking order.
Gain experience and expertise to use elsewhere.
High profile job right out of college.
Resume building.