Eric Levitz retweetledi
Progressives in the Pacific Northwest are lapping their CA sibs in the race for good housing policy.
The latest: An Oregon ban on unfunded inclusionary zoning, with Democratic Socialists leading the charge!
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Eric Levitz
47.1K posts
Eric Levitz
@EricLevitz
Think out loud for https://t.co/1Dbt4zwdm2. [email protected] https://t.co/0pFwy0400C
Katılım Eylül 2012
3.1K Takip Edilen46.3K Takipçiler
Eric Levitz retweetledi
@AlanZibel @SLCPaladin I'm skeptical that he's detail-oriented enough to insist on the build-to-rent provisions, as opposed to a ban on institutional investors buying existing homes. Would agree that doing something on the latter was probably politically necessary
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@SLCPaladin @EricLevitz i suspect it was necessary to get Trump on board. But selling it as a positive thing is a bit much.
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Elizabeth Warren's crackdown on corporate homebuilding is wildly regressive.
Not only would the policy reduce the supply of housing - it would also require some landlords to oust their tenants en masse, so that wealthier families can purchase their homes
vox.com/politics/48286…
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The "populist" crusade to make the suburbs more segregated and expensive vox.com/politics/48286…
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@SLCPaladin Yeah, I think the bill is still good on net (and Warren should deserves credit for shepherding its best provisions through the Senate). But this bit is just so needlessly counterproductive
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@EricLevitz I think I largely agree with this point. But the removal of the steel chasis for manufactured housing and expanding access to financing for manufactured homes through FHA and encouraging modular and factory-built housing will more than offset this.
It's a bitter pill to swallow.
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Ordinary Americans' tax rates are already historically low.
Democrats should prioritize fortifying and expanding the welfare state over narrowing America's (exceptionally thin) tax base vox.com/politics/48255…
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Eric Levitz retweetledi
New short paper w @j_kalla!
Candidates gain from moderation, but less than many theories expect.
Many conclude voters must not care about issues.
This is wrong. Small *average* effects mask large effects on specific issues & are consistent with widespread issue-based voting 🧵
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Eric Levitz retweetledi
There are so many ways to give money and avoid any of the nonprofit pathologies you want to. It is pure cope to pretend that these very smart people can't figure that out.
Some good ideas I've seen around include:
- Prizes for vaccine development
- Purchase some high-social-value patents and release them to the public
- Direct cash transfers
- Scholarships for people to study specific questions you think are important
- Advance market commitments for important high-value tech innovations (drought resistant crops, cheap desalinsation whatever)
- direct funding of open-source infrastructure
- Hire a right wing person to think of more ideas than the ones I'm coming up with off the cuff
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The Booker-Van Hollen fiscal vision is totally incoherent.
They officially believe that Democrats should slash middle-class taxes -- while increasing social welfare spending by more than $30 trillion -- all without adding to the deficit.
vox.com/politics/48255…
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A tax revolt is sweeping America.
In 2023 and 2024, states collectively cut taxes by $15.5 billion and $13.3 billion respectively — the two largest annual reductions on record.
Meanwhile, voters increasingly say their taxes are too high in opinion polls.
vox.com/politics/48255…
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Eric Levitz retweetledi
Great @EricLevitz piece today on the recent middle class tax cut proposals we’ve seen over the last week.
vox.com/politics/48255…
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99%-ism - the belief that only the top 1% should have to pay higher taxes - is a scourge.
Booker and Van Hollen's tax cut plans represent the culmination of a decades-long trend -- one that could make building a robust American welfare state impossible
vox.com/politics/48255…
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@yeselson @Left_Hegelian I think there’s a plausible case (sketched here) that it will actually improve the information environment. But yes, seems like it will contribute to the collective cognitive atrophy that’s already underway conspicuouscognition.com/p/how-ai-will-…
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@Left_Hegelian Yes…but: appears to be a big aid to medical diagnostics though. Which is no small thing.
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When you come to really understand what Plato means when he says that learning is recollecting, you understand why 'AI', whatever its genuine powers and uses, is disastrous for human cognition.
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@MattBruenig @ZephyrTeachout Yeah exactly. Found the response to this odd. He’s just found a pretentious way of saying “We think people will use AI everyday (like water or electricity) and we will charge them based on how much they use”
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@ZephyrTeachout Seems like the word "intelligence" may be generating reactions beyond what makes any sense. It's a somewhat grandiose way of saying that he sees the business as being one where you sell API calls to LLMs. That's already what it is.
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There’s really interesting research that shows how power impairs the ability to perceive reality
Chief Nerd@TheChiefNerd
🚨 SAM ALTMAN: “We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter.”
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@uhshanti (I also think that forcing regulatory compliance is logistically easier when you are dealing with one large company as opposed to a number of small landlords who collectively have an equivalent number of tenants)
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@uhshanti “Should the government perform regulatory oversight over landlords (of all sizes) to safeguard tenants’ rights” and “Should the government allow large landlords to build and rent houses?” are distinct questions. I say yes to both
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again, this debate is completely disconnected on both sides from the reality that tenants of Wall Street SFH rentals need regulation to not get screwed by junk fees, insane rent hikes, & dogshit maintenance. here's some totally unrelated news from literally today btw
Eric Levitz@EricLevitz
Amazing. Warren is deliberating trying to choke off investment in the construction of *new* single-family rental properties. This is profoundly regressive. Why is it OK for large investors to build and rent out apartments but not single-family homes? Many working-class Americans don't have high enough incomes or credit scores to buy a home. If we cut off investment in rental houses, then these families won't be able to live in large swathes of America: Roughly 70 percent of all residential land is zoned for single-family residences. The only way for working-class people to live in many affluent suburbs -- and access their high-performing schools -- is to rent a house. For this reason, corporate investment in single-family homes reduces socioeconomic segregation. Warren's policy effectively helps rich people keep working-class renters out of their towns -- while reducing the overall supply of housing and nudging up rents. It prioritizes populist symbolism over progressive outcomes.
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And to be clear, my view is that institutional investment in build-to-rent single family homes has had only a marginal impact on rents and prices nationally, largely because it is all but non-existent in many regions of the country.
But it is a significant source of new homes in some regions. And the impact of most discrete policies in this space is marginal. In my understanding, the provision wipes out a good chunk of the bill's projected benefits, though would love to see more estimates x.com/aarmlovi/statu…
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Well, the retreat is in full swing. Yesterday’s disastrous effort to “choke off investment in the construction of *new* single-family rental properties” is today’s “small/marginal” impact, really just a drop in the bucket when ya’ think about it.
Eric Levitz@EricLevitz
"Some financial firms want to invest in build-to-rent single family homes" is true. And such investment is good as it expands the supply of rental homes. But the impacts are small/marginal, since Wall Street-owned SFHs comprise a tiny fraction of the housing market
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