@[email protected]/interfluidity.com (bsky)

@[email protected] @interfluidity.com on BlueSky

[Matt Bruenig @MattBruenig]

@ben_moll @mattyglesias Income, like property more generally, is a social and legal construct. It’s not metaphysically real! So this is not a true/false question. Real question is just a practical one about desired system design.

[Keegs 🧮🏗️ @LittleKeegs0]

The most important takeaway here is that it's not remotely enough to return to prior levels of inequality in the US. We must aim for a *lot* more equality than that.

[Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias]

I don't really favor any of these exotic wealth tax ideas.

But I think this doesn't sit right with people and something is going to have to be done about it.

https://t.co/Pgs4nlZW7E

[Brad Setser @Brad_Setser]

Should the US really celebrate a massive services surplus (in finance) with Caymans? Worry about a similar deficit (in insurance) with Bermuda? celebrate massive exports of R&D services to Ireland and Switzerland or worry about the lost tax revenues from these trades?

4/4

[Gabriel Zucman @gabriel_zucman]

It seems we are now entering a new phase of the rise of inequality in the US.

It's not just wealth and billionaires — it's a broader acceleration.

Here's who benefited from economic growth in 2025, according to the latest estimates available on https://t.co/arZRWrEZEv

[Branko Milanovic @BrankoMilan]

There is a weird (and unacknowledged) Western-centrism that compares only North America (aka the US) and a dozen countries in Western Europe and believes that the answer to that question is the real answer on what works in the world.

[Irena Buzarewicz @IrenaBuzarewicz]

A comic by Bill Whitehead

[Liam Nissan™ @theliamnissan]

💯

[@[email protected]/interfluidity.com (bsky) @interfluidity]

@CoreyLeander When dispersion of levels of wealth+income is high, different class' actual material interests diverge starkly, negative-sum political contestation becomes inevitable and exacts very large costs, in addition to the largest cost, the opportunity cost of coordinated action. /fin

[@[email protected]/interfluidity.com (bsky) @interfluidity]

from me, “The $200,000 standard deduction”, link in following post.

[@[email protected]/interfluidity.com (bsky) @interfluidity]

@CoreyLeander When a society is roughly equal—not fully equal, there shld be different levels of amenity+luxury as incentive to excel, but when those differences do not amount to fundamental excision of the wealthy from shared circumstances—the case for universal electrification is obvious. 3/

[Joe Weisenthal @TheStalwart]

This was an amazing and incredibly damning experiment using Microsoft Copilot, by @adamjkucharski https://t.co/r3WvNMF9jD

[Gabriel Zucman @gabriel_zucman]

If one takes a comprehensive view of taxation in the US, here’s the picture that emerges:

All social groups pay broadly the same effective tax rate today – around 25%-30% of income, all taxes included – with billionaires having the lowest tax rate: 24% on average in 2018–20.

https://t.co/SEzTC7VifI

[Sander Tordoir @SanderTordoir]

Thanks Matt.

Would cite the wisdom of Martin Wolf on the mercantilist fallacy:

“(…) That China is now doing this to Germany is mildly amusing. But the amusement must stop and action start now.”

[Matej Cerny @matej_cerny]

Unbelievable, the first Scala framework which was introduced almost 20 years ago is getting full Scala 3 support! 🤯 What's your excuse for staying on 2.13? #scala
https://t.co/EkHOCXapRH

[Cameron 🇺🇸 🗽🦅 @CameronCorduroy]

it's genuinely crazy that Elon got free reign to do the exact thing that every "just cut spending" dipshit has wanted to do for decades, it failed catastrophically, and they're still running the exact same script like nothing happened

[William B. Fuckley @opinonhaver]

This is what drives me insane about this shit. You got handed the ability to do this, they gave you people the fucking keys, and it was a disaster. You did not know what you were doing, it did not succeed, you could not perform. The outcomes were worse! You failed!

[James Medlock @jdcmedlock]

The US has one of the most progressive tax codes on paper. But our tax and transfer system reduces inequality far less than countries with broader tax systems.

Tax cuts can't help people who don't have an income, but a generous tax financed welfare state can.

[Geoff Shullenberger @g_shullenberger]

The most influential postmodernist bar none was Richard Nixon, who by ending the gold standard untethered the signifier from the signified.