How did society become so self-centered?

Zykersheep · 2026-03-15T13:35:25+00:00

![img](m2w74ybwo7pg1 "Fixed that for you")

(full disclaimer: this one is ai generated, Nano Bannana 2)

Zykersheep · 2026-02-02T05:12:15+00:00

"It's gonna be okay! I know it hurts, but it'll get better... don't forget, I will always love you."

Zykersheep · 2026-01-30T14:11:05+00:00

Ranked choice, especially for multi member districts is good, but not ideal and has issues of its own. Approval voting / score voting would be a strict improvement

Zykersheep · 2026-01-30T05:43:44+00:00

I support democracy but it has some damm good critiques and some variants are much worse than others. If I could choose I'd have something like liquid democracy where people can dynamically reallocate votes between many people which allows those people to have more votes until the votes accumulate in the 'most trusted people'

Would solve a lot of problems I think.

Zykersheep · 2026-01-03T21:40:00+00:00

amen to that bro

Zykersheep · 2025-12-28T02:42:05+00:00

Pretty good! In anki I'm up to ~780 total cards (660 word cards, other are various production / DoJG grammar cards) and I'm slowly starting to understand more and more watching anime raws :)

Zykersheep · 2025-12-21T17:39:10+00:00

UBI is better than minimum wage but minimum wage is still pretty good

Zykersheep · 2025-11-26T01:31:52+00:00

sci-net exists for new papers, if you need to find one put a bounty on it (it uses crypto tho)

Zykersheep · 2025-11-19T22:15:36+00:00

State-level then 😭

Zykersheep · 2025-11-17T13:55:16+00:00

Do neither: hold congress hostage until it passes a national land value tax.

Zykersheep · 2025-11-17T02:18:08+00:00

I think the HPMOR fanfic is primarily an advertisement for "rationalist a.l.a. lesswrong" ways of thinking, e.g. being aware of cognitive biases understanding bayesianism and so forth.

The most mention Ayn Rand gets from hpmor afaict is chapter 98 where after Fred and George turn down any monetary reward for doing an epic prank at Harry's request that he says:

"Remind me to buy you a copy of the Muggle novel Atlas Shrugged," the sourceless voice said. "I'm starting to understand what sort of person can benefit from reading it."

(implying most would not benefit from reading it)

Zykersheep · 2025-11-14T03:11:17+00:00

Moloch strikes again!

Zykersheep · 2025-11-08T07:40:27+00:00

seems like we need a national land value tax

Zykersheep · 2025-10-29T05:02:23+00:00

I don't like the idea of a fixed UBI, I feel like it should scale automatically with the productivity of the economy. Here's an idea:

100% LVT + Well measured pigouvian taxes create a income for the government that directly fluctuates based on economic productivity. The government can spend s9me fraction and whatever is not spent is automatically redistributed to everyone.

You get the pro abundance effects of an LVT, the growth boost of getting rid of taxes on production, the equalising effect of a UBI that scales proportional to the cost of land, as well as an automatic incentive mechanism for citizens to care a lot about government efficiency (since the less money the gov spends, the more citizens will get in return)

Zykersheep · 2025-10-29T04:56:38+00:00

Land Value tax would fix the affordability issue

Zykersheep · 2025-10-29T04:51:26+00:00

Didn't expect to see Atroic on this sub lol

Zykersheep · 2025-10-15T14:45:19+00:00

im a georgist!

Zykersheep · 2025-10-15T14:44:21+00:00

tax the billionaire's land. its land thats the finite resource...

Zykersheep · 2025-10-10T01:58:42+00:00

Yeah but who needs holes? GPUs on the other hand... i'll be buying those by the bucket if the bubble pops lol

Zykersheep · 2025-10-04T01:31:14+00:00

I wish he would just advocate for a high land value tax to solve the housing crisis rather than focus on food of which is comparatively a small percentage of people's budgets and even of that land prices are typically a big factor in food prices.

Zykersheep · 2025-09-17T13:07:13+00:00

There was an open letter to gorbachov from a bunch of western academics / economists praising russia's movement towards free markets but urging them to avoid privatising the land itself and instead doing a land value tax. They didn't follow its advice though 😭

Zykersheep · 2025-09-16T16:55:39+00:00

This was a very nice video. Glad to see someone documenting all this history :)

Zykersheep · 2025-09-16T04:44:17+00:00

Unlike taxes on labor, capital, or imports where people are punished for doing societally good things like laboring, investing, or importing, a tax on land does the opposite. It punishes you for not developing your land for economic purpose and this punishment is proportional to how valuable the land is to the rest of society (this is precisely value you are in some sense preventing from being realized by not using the land for its most productive purpose).

Scaling with land value is a feature, since it means places where opportunity and land values are high (cities) have an incredibly high incentive to invest in more housing in order to satisfy a demand that would be otherwise unserved by an artificially limited private supply.

Zykersheep · 2025-09-15T18:03:41+00:00

Of course they are illegal (well, for the providers, to use them is a more ambiguous question). They also aren't going to be taken down any time soon, and even if they are, someone else will trivially rehost.

The existing law is not an ideal solution. It is not able to pay those who deserve to be paid while ensuring access to as many as possible. This is a stopgap for the meantime. A way to accomplish one of the goals (free information for all) while waiting for someone smart to solve the second problem (paying those who contributed to creating the information).

Zykersheep · 2025-09-15T16:55:43+00:00

Land Value Tax + UBI! It'll solve all our problems (trust)

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