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Ch4: wealth inequality threatens democracy. Commodification of citizenship (sale of political rights for money). Lobbyists, corps threatening to leave a tax domain to get laws passed, rich buying media outlets, Koch Network activities. Well-connected group actively rigging the rules to grow the capital they already have. All rich ppl benefit from this. Neolibs play into hands of fascists and RW politics.

Ch3: “Dirty Money” Questions morality of how people got their money in the first place: inheritors of Nazi Germany industrial wealth, Atlantic slave trade. Discussion of Reparations. Klepts. Socialized risk. Labour exploitation. Immorality of Tax Dodging. “fiscal engineering by the wealth defense industry” Wealth inequality is likely a lot worse than we think, since much of wealth is undetected.

4.5 rounded up. There are some plot holes and some cliches, but the story is completely sold by the excellent narrator. Before even finishing this book I got the second and third in the series. Been a while since I read a rollicking fantasy like this. Definitely reminiscent of Locke Lamora.

Ch2: How focusing on poverty (instead of inequality) allows for optimistic narrative about progress these past 2 centuries. Actually most happened in China, which obviously not capitalist. She presents much data on distribution of gains to show rising tides floats yachts more than boats. Piketty. Neoliberalism. How we forget to talk about class. Focusing on poverty only leaves the rich to do what they want.

Ch1: Poverty much more visible than extreme wealth. Media doesn’t report enough on the rich, many don’t notice inequality. 4 kinds of wealthy. Diff between rich and super-rich. 3 thresholds: the Rich Limit: how much it takes for people to think of you as rich; the Ethical Limit: the max amount you can hold without feeling icky (about 1M per person); the political limit: the cap the gov should incur (10M per person).

Intro: Exploring the ethics of extreme wealth. She puts her cards on the table right away, arguing for an “ethical limit” of 1m per person, to be dug into later. She bats away common criticisms: limitarianism is not about USSR communism. Nor the abolition of markets or private property. She takes apart the “envy objection” and points out the illogic of envy politics.

Cal Newport’s latest advice book tackles the question of productivity in knowledge work. Factory work can much more easily be measured and systematized. Newport points out that office workers, writers, artists, and scholars are often assigned tasks and must come up with their own individual system to be productive. These systems are opaque to managers, who end up relying on “visible activity” (which many busy office workers are familiar with) as the proxy for productivity. Add in always-on email and instant messaging apps, plus a global pandemic and people trying to work from busy homes, and you end up with a lot of burnout.

However…

See rest of review micro.chadkohalyk.com/2024/04/22/just-enough-capitalism.html

Very readable yet comprehensive history of Northern Island over the past 100 years.