Category: Political Science & Economics

Don’t Believe The Polls, Trump Can Win Again

Category : Political Science & Economics
Posted on August 30, 2020 by Nathan Lustig

Donald Trump has a very good chance of being our next president. I wrote these same words in August 2016. I’m writing them again in August 2020.

The polls don’t matter. Biden’s 2020 lead is the same as Hillary’s in 2016. Swing states are still extremely close.

Trump has done a great job of riling up his base, using manipulative tricks, exaggerations and lies to try to scare the US into electing him again. He is the Troll in Chief, and it’s working. Again.

His Republican enablers all know that Trump is breaking norms (and the law), taking more personal power and imperiling our democracy.

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Humans Need Not Apply

Category : Political Science & Economics
Posted on February 8, 2017 by Nathan Lustig

I saw this video in the comments on Fred Wilson’s post The Future of Labor and thought it was worth reposting here. I’ve written about automation, AI and what the world will look as jobs get automated away multiple times in the past. This video is a great overview that shows that AI and automation are already here, not way off in the future.

We’re in Deep Trouble

Category : Political Science & Economics
Posted on January 30, 2017 by Nathan Lustig

Trump’s un-American presidency is only 10 days old. And it’s going to be way worse than people think.

Trump is an insecure, narcissistic con man with an unsecure Android phone. He’s shown he is incapable of being an adult, obsessed with getting people to love him, attacking any and all real or perceived enemies and slights. His entire agenda is set to consolidate personal power in hopes that people will love him.

The real power is seemingly being wielded by white supremacist and self-described Leninist Stephen Bannon and billionaire Robert Mercer, who was the biggest single US campaign contributor in 2016. As Bannon said:

“Lenin…wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.” Bannon was employing Lenin’s strategy for Tea Party populist goals. He included in that group the Republican and Democratic Parties, as well as the traditional conservative press.

In the first ten days, they’ve already started to create chaos, started a constitutional crisis, destabilized the US and brought shame onto our country. A partial list: (more…)

Tech Will Allow a Family to Live Well on $3500 per Year

Category : Political Science & Economics
Posted on December 30, 2016 by Nathan Lustig

So far, I’ve talked about some of the downsides of the massive change from AI and path dependency:

I wrote about how being compensated for our data might be a way out. But what about some other potential good news?

“Competing Without Software Is Like Competing Without Electricity” – Naval Ravikant

As technology impacts every industry and becomes as ubiquitous as electricity, we will see the vast majority of industries behave like the computer and software industries do: getting better each year, while deflating in price.

As Sam Altman, the head of YCombinator puts it: (more…)