Libertarian Billionaires Want To Redefine The Democratic Party

"Ezra, you made it sound like corruption..." made me laugh for how oblivious that comment is.

We would like to redefine libertarian billionaires.

We would like to redefine libertarian billionaires.

Lmao I’m supposed to be sympathetic or relate to the sentiment of “I couldn’t buy the Biden administration as easily as I could the Trump administration, so now I hate democrats”?

I hope that comedian never brings up how the ruling class is out of touch with the working class, cause wow. That’d be fastballing a stone within an entirely glass house.

Billionaires are just subhuman. Simple as.

Food production is incredibly inefficient... Government subsidies

Aren't privately owned cities just a return to serfdoms

Yeah libertarians views are so hated they had to hostile takeover of both parties so they can have freedom to take away our rights. So much freedom. Fucking pricks.

Ideological legacies DO matter. The ideological legacy of the New Deal is something that will never be shaken off no matter what incarnation the Democratic party takes. A libertarian takeover of the Democratic party is useless.

Ezra needs to stfu and go away. Talk about milk toast. He always has been. F that other asshole!!!!

Let them have it. Time for a new party.

The thing is that Ezra is also so up the capital ass that he would have defended their argument in the end but they can’t let him talk

In other words, these guys are suppply siders?

It is wild that Sam is arguing for less housing and more barriers to building housing because there is money in politics. Why would you throw the baby out with the bathwater? This is a constant issue with this political pundintry, that everybody thinks they have the one solution to an issue and if you suggest any stepping stones or alternative solutions, you have to be opposed. This whole segment was just smearing Ezra because he doesn't want the local retired uncle to be able to come down to the county council meeting and oppose an affordable apartment complex because there are frogs in the puddle there and demands an environmental review, traffic study, heightened building codes above normal rules, etc. etc. These NIMBYs do not care about any of the things they say, the frogs, the environment, the traffic, the tenants, because when the county council members say yes lets add the requirements and the builder finishes all those 10 years later, the uncle is back saying they still don't want it built and demand stricter review for whatever other reason without ever reading the reports they demanded in the first place.

I literally watched this happen locally last week. Council members in a County with a shortage of 12,000+ affordable units and 30,000 families (100,000 individuals) on the affordable housing waitlist, blocked upzoning of a non-residential parcel with possibility of just homes on small lots because of traffic, frogs, and even that the builder planned to extend county water and sewer to the area, which would mean nearby homeowners would need to hook up the next time their current septic system failed and would be expensive. Getting off of septic is an incredible environmental boon, preventing seepage and local water contamination. 50 homes is barely a nick in the 12,000 unit shortage and they still block it to leave an empty inaccessible overgrown private land area sitting for no reason. BUT OH NO MEGA DONORS SPEND MONEY POLITICALLY SO LETS NOT REFORM THE WAY WE REZONE AND BUILD.

The democratic party defines itself as a corporate party of right wings which they are.

This is why we lose. Instead of embracing accomplishing our agenda more effectively, we circle the wagons around corruption and incompetence.

Perhaps he should've brought some of this up in the conversation with Ezra?

LOL. These two big heads trying to explain to Ezra how a bribe is not a bribe if they do it is like an old Three Stooges bit (it just needs more slapping and eye poking). 😂

They want to turn it into their personal tool to use against us. They demonstrate the need for us to take them down because they will ALWAYS bring us to fascism.

Not too many two-word phrases that are more toxic than
“Libertarian billionaires”
🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

Sam, stop letting the Ezra Klein debate get to you lol "not very granular" ya, maybe his shit is so granular it misses the forest for the trees, tho

EA is not crypto and tech people (it's a movement literally started in the humanities by a group of philosphers). It isn't just a utilitarian thing either (there are cristian EA orginanizations for example). The EA movement is just defined by one thing, trying to evaluate empirical evidence to see how much good certian projects can do (and they might have certian metrics they care about in paticular). We can criticize EA movement's methods, but I think it's silly to bash the concept of EA, because the two things you would criticize an EA for are 1. The project you are investing in won't actually produce the most good and 2. This project violates some deontological constraint (maybe it's not ok to treat a group of workers like shit to save some lives on the other side of the world). Both of which are thibgs that EA as a concept can accomadate (as long as they aren't utilitarian).

To actually make a criticism that goes against EA the idea rather than individual projects or organazations we have to say "empricially investigating and then spending our money where we can do the most good is not worth doing" which is a rediculous claim.

I don't think what the Ezra Klein types understand is that there is no popular support for wonkery. No body cares about how smart you think you are.

I'd love to see you discuss this subject on the Lemonade Stand podcast. Their coverage of Abundance has been largely positive, perhaps focusing on different aspects of the book's plan than you all, but they've consistently demonstrated a willingness to have constructive dialogues and consider nuance of topics like this. I think it would be a very valuable conversation!

Im not voting for an abundance democract. Exra Klien types will voteblue no matter who. They need us way more than we need them and until they realize that dems arent winning again

Recently I've realized who Ezra actual is, and it's been more than a disappointment. I'd like to see Krystal Ball lay out the flaws in his self-serving, privilege preserving villainy. I've heard enough from Ezra Klein.

The YIMBYs are so insidious. Like Libertarians, they stole a term as a trojan horse. YIMBYism first began as a response to local politics like “yes, I think we need a homeless shelter, but not in my backyard” or “yes we need more train stops, but not in my backyard.” Somewhere in the late 2010s, it morphed into “you can’t do anything to stop developers and landlords.”

This was my reaction to your debate, govt projects are so "costly" because they hire unions, they follow safety protocol, why doesnt he pitch this to dave rubin who wants to build houses without regulations? Its short-sighted building houses for people that will fail or put those same people in harms way, and through the govt it improves the economy for working class people.

The Abundance slop aims to lure the billionaires back to the dems by waving the deregulation flag. The exact opposite of what we need to do right now, which is make them pay their fair share of taxes, or they are free to leave. Eat the rich, not workers.

In terms of public broadband, even with a mandate to provide to the widest segment possible, Saskatchewan’s public telecom SaskTel was first in N. America for broadband, as with every major jump in speed via new tech and algorithms, they were first to market.

And the private companies to compete in Saskatchewan have to halve third prices compared to either Alberta or Manitoba next door, so we get cheaper and better service.

Public doesn’t mean inefficient. Public owned utilities are watched like the public are hawks, because gov’t definitely doesn’t want anything like even a hint of scandal or customers getting ripped off in any way.

Sasktel even got the contract for laying the fibre when the Chunnel was built, and they came in early and under budget.

Don’t believe the tripe that publicly owned means more expensive or inefficient, it isn’t true, and the left often concedes the myth as true as well, even here where they should know better.


Frankly the housing crisis could be best tackled by the gov’t saying screw the blowback, we’re gonna build houses, a mega-project like we’ve seen in the past like the GOP’s interstate highway project which was HUGELY expensive, but has paid for itself, like infrastructure always goes, orders of magnitude X over.

Same shit where the DNC reject material realities of working people, builds like 10 deregulated houses and then does shocked Pikachu face when they lose an election.

Blue maga wants to kill all of our wolves and cripple the ESA too

Billionaire is pathetic, feeling entitled and self centered , the way he made his billions should be scrutinized, like Voltaire comment “ behind every fortune there’s a crooked deal “

This is a plan to convert the Democratic party full-on into the Rockefeller Republican party represented by people like the superdelegates in the party, like the Clintons, like Pelosi, like Schumer, like Lieberman etc. There will be no space within that party for the working class or the poor. Eventually they will embrace austerity for abundance and we will be in a new "Golden Age" of capitalism that will be something like the Technofeudalism described by Yano Varifakis. The left is gone from politics. It no longer exists. It clings to reality in places like this where people like Sam and Emma and the rest of the majorityreport provide insight into what is going on. Thanks guys.

Wait listening to Ezra and reading the book abundance Ezra doesn't talk about unleashing the free market to make things happen but rather unleash government to make things happen.

Ezra talks about approaching problems by preventing government from being captured by all interests whether right wing or progressive. He is advocating for bigger government and more programs and a government with an agenda that delivers promises in a matter of a few years, not decades.

While I agree that the conversation needs to also focus on the billionaire class and wealth inequality, it's kind of dishonest to paint Ezra as a big libertarian or neo liberal, that is aligned with corporate interests when he explicitly wants to get all interests out of the way.

We can talk about taxing the billionaires and taking them down, but how are people gonna believe that we are actually gonna deliver on that promise when we can't even take care of their material needs such as housing, better wages, and overall security.

Stop calling these tech billionaires "Libertarians", even if that is what they call themselves. They are not. Look at Peter Thiel, who claims to be a Libertarian, who owns the largest surveillance network in the country. They want freedom for THEM, not for you. They want lower taxes for THEM, even if it means raising taxes on the poorest, who aren't even paid a living wage to begin with. They want the power, outside of a court of law, to declare who should live and die. These people are power freaks, not a bunch of free-thinking Liberals. They might not be "traditional" Conservatives, but they very much align themselves with power. But, don't think that these people actually represent "Libertarianism".

The solution to the housing crisis IS supply. They are correct about that. Rent control DOES get less supply built. They are correct about that.
What they won’t acknowledge is that the best solutions are “big government” policies.
1) A hefty vacancy tax would bring a lot of already-built supply to market.
2) Subsidizing construction of affordable units has worked in the past, has worked in other countries, and it can work in New York today.

The Abundance Agenda is attempting to promote the general welfare with platitudes.

Public housing is not a YIMBY thing, there’s a reason why there’s a separation between YIMBY and PHIMBY people

Wrong dude. The postal service is completely inefficient? And what type of efficiency will you be enacting? The postal workers sorting mail faster? Driving on their delivery way over the speed limit? It's a UNION LOCK WITH AN EXCELLENT HOURLY SALARY WITH HEALTHCARE AND A PENSION AND OTHER BENEFITS, LIKE THE EFFING TEACHER'S UNION, THAT THEY ABHOR AND ARE VEHEMENTLY OPPOSED TO. It's pretty simple Sam. Try using your brain.😮

Abundance Comcast is not the problem! Facts Comcast wrote some of the regulations they complained about in the broadband discussion!

It’s the entitlement that oligarchs & corporations have never ceases to amaze me. They are the worst kind of people, the people who have everything but still want more.

Do you really support current zoning that is used to limit housing??
Have you not read the Color of Law ???
You have it all ass backwards -- you can't really be supporting liberal housing policies on CA, MA, NY??
Stop on the bogey man stuff. The greed is in the eyes of every homeowners in liberal states,
locoligarchies that support the moneyed Democrats. Its falling aopart because Dems fail to fix housing for the less well off through. Spending 600k a unot is not the ansewer.
Your talking about an air filter near a highway is dumb.

In terms of Efficiency vs Efficacy, we know they already don’t care about government efficiency when it comes to the military, they just want to feel safe. Heck they don’t even care about efficacy. Neither the police nor the military are either efficient or effective. But if we’re going to have the best fighting force on the planet and the safest suburbs in any country that has suburbs that isn’t Canada, then why can’t we have the best educated children in the world, the best trained for work young adults in the world, the best healthcare in the world, the most well rested and paid workforce on the planet, the least anxious people on the world, the most housed population in the world, the best and most nutritiously fed in the world, the cleanest and safest food and water on the planet, the most walkable and and enjoyable cities in the world, the fastest trains in the world, the most rehabilitative and restorative justice system in the world, the most participatory democracy in the world, etc. why do we have to make these things succumb to the bottom line of some dude. And it’s not pie in the sky. It’s a reality for numerous countries.

I'd like to see these guys directly asked what entitles them to this kind of access. Why are they able to make a direct call to someone in an administration and get results.

That was the mistake that the republican party did. Letting the kooks into the party. Now look at what we have. Change is good , but these people are crazy

This is obscene. Jesus

I love it when Sam goes on a tear. This is always his best work