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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  2670 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: August 2, 2017

Local Politics

We had ~10% turnout in our city commission primary. Whoooooh. Fucking Kobach.

Everyone I voted for made the cut for the general, so that's nice. I suspect both of the incumbents will keep their seats, which means one of my choices probably won't get elected in the general. I hope Stumblingbear gets a seat, he's been the one taking affordable housing the most seriously thus far.

Reading

I'm now 30% of the way through Wealth of Nations. I get why no one reads this now. It's inconvenient. Both from a length perspective, and from our popular notions of what it says versus what it actually says.

Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil is also short and good. It is balancing out Wealth nicely. I have mixed feelings about these matte paperback book covers, though. Some of them hold up fine, but some of 'em (thinking about my copy of Land of Lisp here) hold up like shit.

Union

Trying to come up with suggestions for the contract negotiation suggestion meeting this weekend. So far, everything I have is stuff they won't want to hear: that is, stuff that would require active involvement on their part, not passive benefits. I.e. stuff to grieve when the company violates it.

Bread

My sourdough starter is... done. Tried sleeping it in the fridge while it was so hot out, but then I forgot about it. Tastes off now.

Oh well, they mostly just cost time to start. Maybe I'll get that mill soon.





StillWaters  ·  2670 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I read "Wealth of Nations" while at business school many years ago.

I find it weird how often people will say something is leftist when in fact it is something Adam Smith would be fully supportive of (for example government intervention to ensure net neutrality). Or they believe capitalism leads to the opposite conclusion of what Smith actually advocated or warned about (e.g. Citizens United).

So many today proclaim they are fervent followers of capitalism, yet have an incredibly poor understanding of this philosophy and the founding tract of Adam Smith.

Your post made me order the book so I can read it again.

user-inactivated  ·  2670 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Reading it from the left, an alternative title of "The Moderate's Manifesto" has crossed my mind more than once.

StillWaters  ·  2670 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah, it's quite weird to realize that the Dems are actually the most capitalist party right now. And also to realize how far removed the Libertarians (and most Republicans) are from capitalism.

user-inactivated  ·  2668 days ago  ·  link  ·  

To me, it isn't that those aren't Capitalist parties. It is rather that they subscribe to different philosophies as to how capital benefits society.

user-inactivated  ·  2670 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Off-topic: Your username has nothing at all to do with Trevor Hall's song does it?

StillWaters  ·  2670 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Lol, nah. It was on a flyer when I was looking for inspiration, and I've always liked the saying "still waters run deep".