Sourcing þe Energy for NIMBYism, &
2022-06-12 Su
FIRST: Sourcing the Energy for NIMBYism
Confer Karl Polanyi: The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time <https://archive.org/details/greattransformat0000pola_o9l4>, passim, on how the market economy transforms land into a “fictitious commodity”, and how that then powers a societal reaction against that idea. Nobody believes that the best use of land is the one that passes the maximum profitability test in the eyes of distant rootless cosmopolites. This does not mean that NIMBYism is a sensible reaction. It is not. But it is a guide to where NIMBYism gets its energy:
Addison del Mastro: No Housing Please, We’re a Community: ‘[Andy:] “I think part of what people on the right are reacting to… is the apparent tendency on the left to try and eliminate the layers of society between the individual and the federal government… local institution[s]…. As they have declined so to, I feel, has our sense of community…. NIMBYs sense [this] at a fundamental, almost subconscious level. And so, recognizing a problem but not its underlying cause, they lash out at new development projects in the (in my opinion) misguided belief that they are arresting a further loss of that sense of community.”… This supposition rings very true to me…
LINK:
Two additional points:
It is not “the left”; it is, rather, “the system” that eliminates all intermediary organizations. The original German phrase in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (1848): Manifesto of the Communist Party <https://oll.libertyfund.org/page/marx-manifest#bourgeois> is “Alles Ständische und Stehende verdampft…”—”all that is solid melts into air…”—everything that firmly exists and all the elements of the society of orders evaporate…”—”all traditional estates and status-markers and all fixed patterns are steamed away…” The left and the right do, however, have different reactions to the coming of market society’s steaming away of all intermediary structures and sources of social power that are not based on property rights recognized by the market economy. The left works to moderate market- (and other-)created wealth inequalities and to give individuals equal entitlements based on their status as citizens. The right works to shore up traditional hierarchies, liberties, privileges, and other sources of social power—no matter how unequal and unfair they may be—in a rearguard action against the solvent of the market economy.
It is important to register how bonkers this reaction is. Where a region has become desirable to the wealthy, blocking new development greatly strengthens the forces keeping people of the kinds who used to live there from moving in, and greatly accelerates the pressure on landlords to push those who do not now live there who do not have iron-clad property rights out. Where a region has become undesirable, blocking new infrastructure and retail development accelerates its decline in amenities, and thus eventually accelerates the dissolution of community.
Very Briefly Noted:
Gideon Rachman: Ukraine & the Start of a Second Cold War <https://www.ft.com/content/34481fbd-4ca7-4bb3-bef5-e68fefed7438>
Michele Jamrisko: Has Inflation Peaked? Signs Are Flashing in Chips, Shipping, Fertilizer <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-06/peak-inflation-signs-are-flashing-in-chips-shipping-fertilizer#xj4y7vzkg>
Elaine Weiss (2013): Mismatches in Race to the Top Limit Educational Improvement: Lack of Time, Resources, and Tools to Address Opportunity Gaps Puts Lofty State Goals Out of Reach <https://www.epi.org/publication/race-to-the-top-goals/>
Bob Yirka: Making Blockchains More Efficient: Calculate a Useful Task as Part of the Consensus Mechanism<https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-blockchains-efficient-task-consensus-mechanism.html>
William D. Cohan: The SPAC Stars of ’21: Where Are They Now?: ‘SPAC-mania, a consensual hallucination in which everyone, from Ackman to A-Rod, got in on the SPAC craze. It may have been easy to raise all those billions, but it turned out to be much harder to put them to work… <https://puck.news/the-spac-stars-of-21-where-are-they-now/?_cio_id=f6c60600ef33f033>
Ed Dolan: Trust, State Capacity, & the Epidemiological Mystery of Covid: ‘Trust played an important role in the response to the COVID pandemic but it finds a larger role for state capacity… <https://www.niskanencenter.org/trust-state-capacity-and-the-epidemiological-mystery-of-covid/>
Paul Krugman: The Coming Rage of the Money Hawks <https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/27/opinion/inflation-prices-stagflation.html>
Daron Acemoglu: Understanding the New Nationalism <https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/new-nationalism-three-factors-reaction-to-globalization-by-daron-acemoglu-2022-06>
Sigal Samuel : Liberia’s Stunningly Effective Way to Reduce Shootings & Other Crimes: ‘The program Borh had been running for 15 years: Sustainable Transformation of Youth in Liberia… <https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23141405/violence-crime-cbt-therapy-cash-shootings>
Mohamed A. El-Erian: Saudi Arabia Is Swinging Again—But for How Long?: ‘Saudi Arabia… regaining its swing-producer role. But, in view of growing hostility toward fossil fuels, this development is unlikely to alter the market’s longer-term dynamics… <https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/oil-market-saudi-arabia-swing-producer-role-by-mohamed-a-el-erian-2022-06>
Diane Coyle: Rethinking Supply Chains: ‘Other considerations besides economic efficiency matter, and that hands-on craft knowledge cannot be transmitted online. Unfortunately, problems that have been four decades in the making cannot be solved overnight… LINK: <https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/rethinking-global-supply-chain-model-by-diane-coyle-2022-06>
Twitter & ‘Stack:
Helen Lewis: Terms You Need to Know to Understand the Modern Internet: ’My piece on the “orphan take” went down so well. Current contenders include the mimophant, the euphemism treadmill and pluralistic ignorance. Are there are any concepts that, when you heard about them, made you go “ohhhhhhh” in deep recognition?…
Ross Barkan: The Jews & Italians Against Liberalism: ‘“They feel the pressure, like everything is fading away,” one local explained. “It’s all in danger: the house you always wanted is in danger, the kids are in danger, the neighborhood is in danger. It’s all slipping away.”… In 1985, the Barnard sociologist Jonathan Rieder published a book that is little-known today. Canarsie: The Jews and Italians of Brooklyn Against Liberalism…
John Quiggin: Memo RBA: We Ought to Live with Inflation, More of It: ‘The RBA… should reset its inflation target to 4%, or better still dump inflation targeting in favour of nominal GDP targeting…
Ryan Avent: Does Not Compute: ‘Te issue isn’t just one in which some individuals receive bad information, but rather one in which we all engage with each other a little differently, we are all part of the problem…. These networks want us to perform, and that we can instead choose not to. We can be silent, or gracious, or both…. We can do better. We have to, if we want to get through this…
Jonathan V. Last: How Long Will the New Republican Regime Last?: ‘Three boxes… a Republican needs to check… today: Personal loyalty to Donald Trump.Tolerance of corruption by favored groups and persons. Tolerance for the actions of Vladimir Putin. That’s it. That’s the Republican program now. And if you’re not onboard with those three positions, then all the ACU scores in the world won’t save you…
John Ganz: A Real War: ‘The great irony is how often “realism” ends up being attack on actual reality…. To focus on what we are actually seeing makes us dangerous sentimentalists…
Josh Barro: Are There Any Adults at the Washington Post?: ‘Post management has a relevant interest in disciplining [Weigel]… Felicia Sonmez… has gone on a days-long public diatribe…. Your workplace is not Fleetwood Mac…
