Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
“The Trump administration is seeking a 10 percent stake in Intel, Bloomberg reported this week, which would involve converting some or all of the company’s CHIPS Act grants into equity in the company. The exact terms of the deal remain unclear”
https://reason.com/2025/08/19/trumps-plans-for-intel-take-a-page-from-bernie-sanders-playbook/
‘Multi level marketing schemes are mostly scams. Most people fail and lose money. Some lose a lot of money. People want to be their own boss, but really they’re a sucker.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcLQh3yDQuo
A woman’s rented housing burned down. The landlord wouldn’t let her out of her lease even though the home burned down. No apartments would lease to her because the landlord said she owed them money. She and her children became homeless. Our system allows private equity firms to push people into homelessness in the pursuit of profit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osFQMTJz1w8
“The report includes no mentions of Hamas’ attacks or hostages.”
https://reason.com/2025/07/14/u-n-report-blames-israel-and-capitalism-for-the-conflict-in-gaza/
“Basically, the feds impose damaging new taxes and trade restrictions on farmers for reasons mostly related to ideology and rent-seeking, then undo their effects by making farmers more dependent on government largesse. Often lost in the discussion, but one reason that U.S. farmers are so dependent on selling commodity crops to China and elsewhere is that past policies essentially subsidized them to do so.
Like with all things political, various federal farm policies have created a series of odd bedfellows. Many environmental groups have lauded past farm bills because they provide incentives for farmers to set aside land as open space, but overall the federal meddling has harmed the environment. For instance, federal sugar subsidies have greatly diminished the Florida Everglades by encouraging the conversion of wetlands into sugar fields.”
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“All these policies drive up food prices for non-farmers and reduce our choices in meats and produce.”
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“Instead of creating this convoluted, counterproductive policy that mimics a Rube Goldberg farce, the government should do the basics to help farmers. It should scuttle tariffs, halt subsidies, eliminate costly shipping levies, create a guest-worker program so farmers can have a consistent labor source, lower taxes, bolster water infrastructure and let markets do the rest.”
https://reason.com/2025/05/23/farmers-need-free-markets-not-tariffs-and-welfare/
“Americans produce a lot and consume a lot. We have among the highest average incomes and we buy a lot of stuff. We derive pleasure from acquiring and using material things, whether they’re toys, clothes, video games, or cars. If 37 dolls make you happy, and you have the means, then go out and buy 37 dolls. It is not a question of whether we need them or not.
Trump’s comments are an explicit rejection of materialism, abundance, and capitalism itself. I much prefer the Trump who was obsessively tweeting about stocks going up in his first term. Not only is Trump not tweeting about stocks, but he seems entirely indifferent to the prospect of a recession.
In other comments, Trump has said that prosperity can be achieved through tariffs—which is obviously untrue—so it seems likely that he’s willing to trade off some short-term economic pain for potential long-term gain. But as any student of economics will tell you, the tariffs are all pain, and even if the president doesn’t expect a recession, we are probably going to get one.”
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“There doesn’t seem to be as much visceral outrage at Trump’s assertion that American girls can make do with less. Yet, if there is a greater good here, Trump has been unable to articulate it. If the tariffs are in place simply because Trump romanticizes the late 1800s and thinks we can finance government spending with tariff revenue, then we are doomed.
This rhetoric from Trump has a great deal in common with Bernie Sanders’ anti-capitalist worldview. Between the tariffs, the increasingly progressive income taxes, the incompetent attempt to cut government spending, and the explicit anti-materialism, Trump is off to a bad start with capitalists.
In the past, those with a desire for free-ish markets would generally vote Republican. At least in the past, the Republicans were pro-growth. What does it mean when both major political parties are anti-growth and anti-materialism? What does it mean when the political apparatus of a country is wholly aligned for it to fail?”
https://reason.com/2025/05/07/trumps-they-can-have-5-moment-is-an-attack-on-capitalism/
We should care about the economy. The economy is people’s lives.
We should think about where markets work best and where the government works better. We should consider the structure and incentives of a particular market.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msX9sRTgf8Y
Corporate law firms don’t just present logic and evidence before a judge and jury; they also do lots of underhanded bullshit.
https://www.capitalisnt.com/episodes/how-big-law-firms-shape-capitalism-with-david-enrich
Some of Marx’s ideas were good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bmX0hZoiJM
Do we need to restructure policy to create a capitalism that produces good middle class jobs?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDCnX0r11Rs