James

[Matthew Lilley @MattGLilley]

A bunch of Nobel Prize-winning economists have endorsed California's proposed billionaire wealth tax.

I can't oppose them on authority. But I know some academics who can.

[Isaac @roundrobin42]

About a year ago I had a call with a journalist at a major publication, who had obtained a public figure’s betting records. The man had wagered ten times his (publicly available) salary in the past year, and the journalist was planning an expose. They called me to learn about money laundering, how one could use stolen funds to gamble, and what tools gambling companies had to ensure people didn’t lose more than they could afford.

About three minutes in, I asked them how much the man had deposited and lost. The journalist was confused; “I just told you, he’s gambled more than $4 million.” “Yes,” I responded, “but how much did he LOSE? If I bet $100 on red twice and win once, I will have gambled $200 but netted $0. Amount gambled is a worthless statistic on its own.” We went back and forth for a few minutes, and the call was ended after I told them I couldn’t comment until I had more details.

I never heard from the journalist again, and the story never ran. I’m not sure exactly what happened, although after asking around about the guy my best guess is that he was churning through some sort of online promotion, meaning the “$4 million wagered” had almost no correlation to the amount he won or lost gambling.

Of course, the vast majority of people who gamble, in any form, will lose. At roulette and blackjack they’ll probably lose between 2-5% of what they wager, usually the same for sports betting or prediction markets unless they’re betting parlays in which case it’s likely between 10-20%. More people gambling necessarily means more people losing, and gambling losses all too frequently substitute for saving, investment, and other important expenses, meaning the spread of gambling is associated with widespread financial harm.

But please, journalists, if you are going to cover gambling well you need to understand and articulate the difference between gambling LOSSES and gambling HANDLE. The guy in the video below is obviously gambling in a way likely to endanger his finances; one should never put their whole paycheck on the line. But *even if he does* gamble his entire salary in a year, that’s very different than spending his entire salary on drugs or alcohol, because he’s likely to get at least 80-90% back of what he puts in.

[James @themightyjim]

@supermarke If we paid these teachers what they’re worth they’d all make a lot less money. If we let the market pay the best teachers what they’re worth many of them would make multiples of their current salaries and get equity in their schools. There is a solution,

[James @themightyjim]

@GavMcCracken Appreciate the reply. I’m late so it’s an equities hedge for me.

[James @themightyjim]

@himbopresident You’re salaried professionals! There is no clock! You guys describe the easier hours than a very large portion of workers, and then us want to feel sorry for you that you ever have to work late or on weekends? A LOT OF PEOPLE WORK LATE OR ON WEEKENDS.

[James @themightyjim]

@GavMcCracken “Only net” implies you’re out?

[James @themightyjim]

@Rayzki96 @hilarym99 @coryfromphilly Also most of us work after 5pm a few nights a week. Most of us don’t get summers off. None of us get pensions anymore. Like I don’t feel terrible if a teacher has two work a couple of nights a week. Everyone does. It’s a salaried job.

[James @themightyjim]

@hilarym99 @coryfromphilly Why don’t you have hours during the day when your children are quietly studying or doing an exam or assignment? That was literally when my public school teachers would grade homework,

[James @themightyjim]

@didactickatydid Also fwiw my mom was a teacher. And yes she graded every assignment. And when I was in school our teachers graded every assignment because i literally saw them do the grading while we were studying. What world are you living in?

[James @themightyjim]

@GFsomewhere @woke8yearold Correct. But what if…

[James @themightyjim]

@didactickatydid Are you serious? lol you think the rest of us just don’t do our jobs? And that’s ok? You can’t be serious.

[Manhattan Institute @ManhattanInst]

NEW: We visited PS 307, the failing public school that Nikole Hannah-Jones sent her daughter to.

The teachers make an average of over $100,000 a year. The school spends $52,000 per student each year. The student/teacher ratio is 9 to 1.

We went to another school just down the street that spends less than half of what PS 307 does—yet the academic outcomes are significantly better.

Underfunding and racism aren't causing schools to fail. @DanielDiMartino explains what is:

[James @themightyjim]

@SubwayTakes This is perhaps the dumbest shit I’ve seen on here in weeks. God help us all.

[James @themightyjim]

@ZacharyLoft Or you know we could just fix exclusionary zoning, pass land value taxes to replace property tax, and incentivize development. But that would be fixing the problem vs just passing around money and blaming the other side.

[James @themightyjim]

@hitsdiffcap Sanitation is owned by the unions. It takes a lot of people and they are bought votes. You would have to work with them or beat them politically.

[Megan | @megievalist @megievalist]

I worked in museum education for a time, which meant I worked with K-12 school groups from all five boroughs.

The differences between public and private school kids shocked me. Like, shook me to my core.

- private school 3rd graders who could sit and talk about art vs. 10th grade public school students who could barely read

- private and charter school students who'd walk quietly down a hallway vs. public school teenagers who screamed at each other and tried to swat the smoke detector off of the ceiling

The behavior and academic ability of these students would vary of course, even within their school types. But when you host a bunch of schools of all kinds from across the city, you start to notice patterns.

Such a blackpill for me on the city's public education system.

[Marc Porter Magee 🎓 @marcportermagee]

Reminder: US schools serving low-income and non-white communities get more money per pupil not less and have for a long time

[James @themightyjim]

@bigseb31213 Bingo

[James @themightyjim]

@woke8yearold Ding ding ding