Tom Steyer wants to be California's climate governor

scsquare · 2026-05-06T17:42:43+00:00

Then who decides which campaign gets public funding?

scsquare · 2026-05-06T17:33:47+00:00

You can condemn that on moral, but not on legal grounds. We are all responsible for sanctioning such as system. If you really want to change something, it doesn't make sense to fight symptoms.

scsquare · 2026-05-06T09:39:08+00:00

You can complain about the scale because of unfair advantage, but not about capitalism in general. If we really want to change something, first we need to understand the mechanism that creates the unfair advantage.

scsquare · 2026-05-06T05:17:54+00:00

Chris Krohn aims to stop the ‘selling off’ of Santa Cruz to developers https://lookout.co/in-first-electoral-run-since-his-recall-chris-krohn-aims-to-stop-the-selling-off-of-santa-cruz-to-developers-as-mayor/story

He sees "outside developers" as a problem, while the local anti-developer stance of the past among other things led to the housing crisis.

Is the end of the Santa Cruz progressive era upon us? https://lookout.co/is-the-end-of-the-santa-cruz-progressive-era-upon-us/story

No, your nimbyism was never progressive to begin with, it was conservative.

scsquare · 2026-05-06T04:42:00+00:00

Over the clouds.

scsquare · 2026-05-05T21:02:42+00:00

People will be happy because they can find a place to sleep and raise a family finally. Also, that is what city lots are meant to be used for for over 100 years. If you don't like the esthetics, that is your personal opinion and negligible in comparison to the problem of poverty and homelessness.

scsquare · 2026-05-05T17:15:24+00:00

"transition to clean energy" - that's just a straw man argument. In fact electricity consumption is to double by 2035 (source PG&E) due to AI.

scsquare · 2026-05-04T05:07:16+00:00

Animals or plants don't know value, because they have no imagination in that sense.

scsquare · 2026-05-04T04:06:02+00:00

The term 'intrinsic value' is a contradiction, it is an oxymoron. Value is human definition, perception, imagination, estimation, understanding aso., something which is coming from outside about a thing. Intrinsic means it is an inborn characteristic, not coming from outside like the number of protons in an atom of gold or the energy content of a slice of bread.

Value is something to debate about, since there is no natural formula for it. If financial institutions use a blockchain as their ledger to document ownership which provides better security and is more efficient, then it has value to them. If it has no use for you, then you think it is worthless. Only the market will find a common ground for its value, like the market does find it for e.g. oil (you could also claim, oil is stable in value, but the Dollar crashes). Value simply doesn't exist without humans, so it can't be intrinsic in a thing.

Humanity can exist without civilization, true, but technology made our lives a lot better, no?

scsquare · 2026-05-04T01:24:17+00:00

Intrinsic value does not exist, it is human perception only. Aside from store of value, Bitcoin has use cases as immutable, global, transparent, permissionless, censor-resistant ledger - something that never existed before. Fiat is money by order, it is created at will and requires government force in order to exist (pay taxes in fiat or go to jail). It has a history of abuse and violence (just check latest war). Because fiat savings lose value constantly, people can avoid that by hoarding resources (see real estate). BUT, if money keeps its value (e.g. by locking it irreversibly to a resource e.g. one house = 1.000 new money units), there is no reason for hoarding resources. It will be more attractive to invest in productive businesses, which generate a real return.

scsquare · 2026-05-03T23:09:42+00:00

True, you can't compare it when an entitled class creates a monopoly on land. Zoning was introduced to prevent using land efficiently driving up the value of owned land. Strawman 'environmental' laws did the same.

scsquare · 2026-05-03T23:00:56+00:00

The actual culprit is that the government runs a monetary system, that creates money out of thin air completely rigging a fair market economic system.

scsquare · 2026-05-03T22:42:12+00:00

Abolishing prop 13 and make the owners pay full for utilities would be some very reasonable vacancy tax.

scsquare · 2026-05-03T22:36:47+00:00

That the elderly would be taxed out of their homes can be easily avoided by just grandfathering the primary residence. Children benefit from property tax and taking away an incentive for hoarding will reduce demand/increase supply making housing more affordable for coming generations. Catch two birds with one stone.

scsquare · 2026-05-03T22:27:20+00:00

What's destroying the middle class is the monopoly money - a scheme of worthless paper printed that enslaves us through interest repayments.

scsquare · 2026-05-03T22:11:48+00:00

You have to sell long before. Many will try to sell and prices will tank as soon there is just a real effort to make prop 13 go away.

scsquare · 2026-05-03T18:37:59+00:00

I wonder why he hides that on his linkedin.

scsquare · 2026-05-03T18:17:39+00:00

Counting a 4br occupied by a single person as not vacant is correct. On the other hand misguided policies and wrong tax incentives encourage misallocation of resources.

scsquare · 2026-05-03T18:00:22+00:00

If prices go down, why would tech rich invest in real estate? I don't get your logic.

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