@GovKathyHochul Tax the windows next
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Jonathan Dockrell - Where is my flying car?
1.1K posts
Jonathan Dockrell - Where is my flying car?
@droneevtol
Building the air rights marketplace to help govern and monetize low-altitude airspace, an Emergent Ventures winner. Subscribe: https://t.co/D01UUeBnSu
Earth Katılım Aralık 2022
992 Takip Edilen947 Takipçiler
If you can afford a multi-million dollar second home in New York City, you can afford to join its residents in supporting the greatest city in the world.
nytimes.com/2026/04/14/nyr…
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@vonderleyen This is a contradiction in terms.
You say it’s not for platforms to raise children it’s for parents.
But it is for the EU to be the parents and verify all adults and children pass your verification tests and show their papers.
Stop meddling, it’s not helpful.
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It is for parents to raise their children. Not platforms.
The European Age Verification App is ready ↓ twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…
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@doshea_pds @danobrien20 No.
And what you posted seem to be from around 2009. PRC/CCP in charge of HK from 1997.
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@droneevtol @danobrien20 This Hong Kong?
Cage Homes, Hong Kong, Picture: by Alex Hofford (cited in: Thomas, 2009). | Download Scientific Diagram share.google/Q2HNQHx6CO4I1r…
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Why this chart is wrong.
Five metrics are used to measure 'infrastructure and public services', as per the first image, which shows Ireland to be a total outlier.
Start with public capital spending as share of total govt expenditure. (Unfortunately) rich world governments spend only single digit percentages of total government expenditure on capital spending. As it happens, Ireland has the highest share in western Europe. The actual Eurostat data are charted in the second image.
What about doctor density? Unlike public expenditure, where I'd claim some expertise, I'm certainly not an expert in health economics. But I've spent enough time looking at the numbers over the years to know that Ireland is not an outlier in the number of doctors it has relative population. Even the OECD healthcare at a glance report that is referenced as a source shows that. The table from the report is the third image.
Finally, Ireland has almost no electrified rail. These figures seem correct, but is the energy source of your rail system indicative of the quality of overall infrastructure? I'd argue no, but that's a judgement call.
So, two of the five metrics are completely wrong and the inclusion of a third (which happens to show Ireland by far the worst performer in west Europe) is questionable.
Sinéad O’Sullivan@SineadOS1
The protests in Ireland are not about just fuel! They are about the distance between Ireland on this graph and every other modern and developed economy. Ireland is second wealthiest but gets waaaaay less than any other country for that wealth. By a golden mile. That visual gap in this graph? That’s what people are protesting. It’s a lack of infrastructure and the everyday enshittification of services, the economy, and the additional difficulty of trying to live, relative to peers in any other country. It also highlights why people don’t get uniformly listened to! - because there is no government architecture to engage meaningfully across this huge gap. That gap is a three hour drive to work in traffic, a 14 month wait for an MRI, buses that don’t arrive, trains that don’t exist, schools that have no places for your kids, houses that are unaffordable, pubs that close before midnight, €12 sandwiches, expensive fuel. People feel this gap, even if they can’t explain it precisely. And that builds into resentment, and ultimately protest. Fuel just happened to be the next thing that could be pointed to, today.
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@cib13014506 @danobrien20 If it’s simply a “failure” of execution that assumes the plan is right. It’s not. The data is not the issue, that true, and the was not my central point, the point is the data gives ammunition for meddling and poor centralized planning, which leads to poor outcomes.
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@droneevtol @danobrien20 The "Cowperthwaite vibe" is a fantasy. 1960s HK had no safety net, zero worker rights, and shanty towns. Comparing it to a modern 2026 economy is apples to oranges. Ireland’s issue isn’t "too much data"—it’s a failure of execution. Cutting the data just hides the mess.
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Good piece David, I’m reminded of the Milton Friedman quote:
There are four ways in which you can spend money.
-You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money.
-Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost.
-Then, I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m sure going to have a good lunch!
-Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government.
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Morning, @IrishTimes @IrishTimesOpEd article today is on the monumental waste of public money that plagues Ireland. The State is pissing billions away every year. The figures are startling. No one is accountable.
irishtimes.com/opinion/2026/0…
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@BarryAndrewsMEP @Independent_ie @fiannafailparty @Renew_Press How would you and the gang use this ‘save the kids’ tool to be weaponised against farmers this weekend Barry ?@HMcEntee gov.ie/en/department-…
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📰 READ: my comments in @Independent_ie on the new EU Digital Wallet with age verification to protect kids from nasty social media, which the Irish govt is now implementing 🇮🇪 🇪🇺.
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@ciarannugent Those figures are income tax only. Ireland adds USC (up to 8%) + PRSI (~4.2%), so a single worker on €60k pays ~€15,100 total deductions l, take-home ~€44,900–45,000.
Germany has lower “income tax” shown but ~19–21% mandatory social security (pension, health, care, unemployment) on top, often higher overall burden at these levels.
You cherry-picks income tax while ignoring full employee contributions & what you get in services. Use full net-pay calculators for fair comparison.
Ciarán Nugent@ciarannugent
A German worker on 60k pays 37.5% income tax An Irish worker on 60k pays 25% A German worker on 90k pays 41% income tax An Irish worker on 90k pays 33% All this is very easy to find salaryaftertax.com/de/salary-calc… pwc.ie/issues/budget/…
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@GovIE share your views gov.ie/en/department-…
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Simplify your life with the Digital Wallet.
We’re creating a quick and easy way to keep your important documents securely on your phone.
Join the testing phase: gov.ie/DigitalWallet
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Two takeaways from this rather bizarre article.
@davidmcw has a very poor grasp of Marx & Marxism and an even poorer grasp of Sinn Féin housing policy.
But when your bar is late night Dalkey dinner party conversation then who needs facts or informed opinion!
David McWilliams@davidmcw
Could it be that Sinn Fein are actually too British to run Ireland? irishtimes.com/opinion/2026/0…
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Electrify everything? Ireland’s current electricity use is ~33 TWh/year. Full switch (EVs, heat pumps, etc. & growth) , and redundancy for reliability could need ~100 TWh.
Wind & solar: that’s 1,400–1,650 square miles of wind farm areas (with the innocent sheep getting electric waves daily) & solar fields covering the greenery.
Based on govt ability to deliver anything this seems less than likely. And fitting it, bringing it to affordable levels without gas/oil backups has a snowballs chance in hell.
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Even of the war in Iran ends tomorrow, it should see us changing our energy system for good. The Irish Government should use our EU Presidency to pass new legislation, promoting more renewables, grid flexibility & lower prices, so we electrify everything. irishtimes.com/opinion/2026/0…
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Jonathan Dockrell - Where is my flying car? retweetledi
Hayek was asked to leave “a statement for the future generations.” His response is brilliant:
“Modern civilization which enables us to maintain 4 billion people was made possible by the institution of private property. It is only thanks to this institution that we achieved an extensive order far exceeding anybody’s knowledge.”
“If you destroy that moral basis, which consists in the recognition of private property, we will destroy the sources which nourish present-day mankind, and create a catastrophe of starvation beyond anything mankind has yet experienced.”
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JUST IN: Air Canada CEO to resign following backlash for posting condolence video in English only.
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@patrickc @ATabarrok @conor64 This public health miracle kept me safe at the time, when I was in Englands Green and pleasant land
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Oh, reflexive dismissal of lab leak theories should also be on the list, of course.
I can’t readily think of a profession that declined more in my estimation over the past 10 years than public health. Like most, I started out with a very favorable view—one of brave and far-sighted technocrats—informed by movies like “Contagion”.
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A question for everyone: survey data suggests that by the end of the Covid-19 emergency trust in public health institutions had decreased significantly. If you are among the people who reacted that way, why specifically? I'm hoping for long, diverse, individualized answers.
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The Sky Was Never a Commons. It Was Always a Covenant.
Every device has a master
The question is whether you know whose name is on it before you let it into your sky
flyingcar.sky.trade/p/the-sky-was-…
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@KyleSamani Sometimes humans are constrained by their current experience and vocabulary, they excel at describing today’s reality but not at inventing tomorrow’s. Breakthroughs often require visionaries to interpret deeper needs and create something people didn’t know to ask for.
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@BorisJohnson Show us your short position matron, if you actually believe what you’re saying.
Or is this another Boris Koalemos
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I've long suspected Bitcoin is a giant Ponzi scheme and now I'm hearing tales of woe that make me fear I'm right.
mol.im/a/15643681
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EI’s model prioritizes various economic development over financial returns, which means higher operational costs than lean private VCs.
Top tier VC funds achieve strong multiples, e.g., 3x+ MOIC on top vintages, IRRs 20%+ for elite performers.
EI-specific returns (MOIC/IRR) are not publicly disclosed in detail like private funds. So who knows in reality how they perform.
If they separated out the focus on economic impact such as jobs and exports, so we could see actual returns then we could make some sort of judgement call.
The fact they don’t means we already have our answer as to how financially successful they are as capital returning investors.
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Btw on that startup ireland plan from EI, they plan to return 15X over 5 years
Sequoia return is 10.46 X and whilst I don't want to offend any Irish startups of which I am one, I think Sequoia has a slightly more impressive gene pool
sequoiafund.com/performance/
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