Favorite Rejects 2021-12-01

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

Every single American and Australian and European lefty who thinks if we just act more conciliatory toward China we can persuade them to take more action on climate change is LIVING IN A FANTASY WORLD.

Liam Bright @lastpositivist

Chicken Tikka Masala *mutes thread*

LADbible @ladbible

What is the UK's greatest contribution to humanity?

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Vaccine skepticism in low-income countries

nytimes.comThe Next Challenge to Vaccinating Africa: Overcoming SkepticismVaccines are finally available in many African countries, but an underfunded public health system has slowed their delivery, and some people there, as well as in South Asia, are wary of taking them.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Good to spend money on social housing but bad (and telling) to spend it on conversions rather than creating net new units.

Yonah Freemark @yfreemark

Last night, SF city council approved $64m to be allocated for social housing with a veto-proof majority (mayor London Breed opposes it). Funding will go to small site acquisition (converting market-rate units to guaranteed affordable), eviction prevention. https://t.co/EvazmAf00V

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

$64 million + land use reform to facilitate construction could generate a lot more affordable housing than $64 million to buy existing units at super-high Bay Area prices.

Kim-Mai Cutler @kimmaicutler

Someone is going to spend $1.5-2M to buy a house, like $300K to demolish it, then $600/sqft to build four units (maybe this project is $5M+ total) and then decide to operate half the units at a loss forever. Okay.

Ahsha Safai 安世輝 @Ahsha_Safai

Just introduced my #4plex legislation which allows for up to 4 units in RH1 and RH2 zoned areas. If 4 units are built- 2 units must be affordable. If 3 units are built at least 1 unit must be affordable. Each of the affordable units must be comparable in size to market rate.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Trump at one point said we should execute drug dealers and every young journalist thought it was insane, but then the old farts pointed out that it was an actual law signed by Bill Clinton and just never used by prosecutors because it's probably unconstitutional.

urbanmountain @urbanmountainv

Legalizing low-density multifamily in existing single family neighborhoods does not create dramatic overnight changes. In 40 years cuesta park might look like old mountain view.

sightline.orgThis Is What a Street Looks like 39 Years after Legalizing Fourplexes‘Middle housing’ means gradual evolution, not overnight transformation. Just walk down my street.

sam deutsch @samdman95

a Berkeley city councilmember is comparing traffic cameras that reduce traffic deaths and dangerous police traffic stops to… the Holocaust wtf https://t.co/i5Kq8nCVII

Sophie Hahn @SophieHahnBerk

2/3 I was making the point that you can’t assume government - even local government - will always act in good faith. I related that Local French police collaborators arrested my great grandparents during WWll and loaded them into boxcars headed for Bergen Belsen.

Kim-Mai Cutler @kimmaicutler

Also this. Why would you tax small time projects more aggressively than the large ones built by publicly traded RE companies? https://t.co/obGTIjovF8

Darrell Owens @IDoTheThinking

I dont understand why you would give average homeowners who may build a fourplex a *higher* affordable % requirement than big developers building towers. If you ever wondered why San Francisco is expensive... https://t.co/9MGtbeARyX

Dr. Sarah Bond @SarahEBond

Now this is a book review *lays down on fainting couch* nytimes.com/2019/06/05/boo… https://t.co/9etzeU4p5q

Seph Rodney, PhD @Sephspeaks

What a way to start a book review: "Naomi Wolf’s long, ludicrous career has followed a simple formula." https://t.co/L65D4alW1t

Mike Dunham @mldunham

You come at the king, you best not miss.

Dan Federman @TheFederman

City governments showing they can change zoning quickly when the state threatens them with a good time.

Market Urbanism @MarketUrbanism

The guy trying to impose a 50% IZ requirement on a four-unit building telling other people they don’t understand development. San Francisco is a very special place https://t.co/tyUCDbGcZE

Ahsha Safai 安世輝 @Ahsha_Safai

Many people commenting on my 4-plex leg have never built in SF, don’t understand development but happy to have them join the debate. For years middle income families have been pushed out of SF-my proposal will build housing and housing for working families -check my track record.

Kim-Mai Cutler @kimmaicutler

Excellent subtweet thread about S.F.:

Mark Hogan @markasaurus

You can build four units per parcel if they are all in geodesic domes https://t.co/DtilbXh48W

Timothy B. Lee @binarybits

The Cato Institute counts it as a mark against California's economic freedom that the courts don't enforce noncompete agreements. This seems backwards. cdn.freedominthe50states.org/download/2021/…

Timothy B. Lee @binarybits

Also, it's not quite accurate to say that California law prohibits non-compete agreements. Employers are free to ask employees to sign any agreement they want on the subject. The state just declines to give these agreements the force of law. That's less government not more.

Timothy B. Lee @binarybits

I wish libertarians would think harder about the limiting principle here. If McDonalds asked workers to promise not to work for any other employer in the country for a period of 20 years, every state in the country would refuse to enforce it. As they obviously should!

Timothy B. Lee @binarybits

I love this example because an indenture contract is like a much more extreme version of a noncompete contract. One that used to be legal but (AFAIK) isn't any more in developed countries.

David Andolfatto @dandolfa

@binarybits No. But do you think it's bad that poor Irish peasants would not have been able to emigrate had enforcement been legally prohibited? It's an interesting trade-off, I think.

Timothy B. Lee @binarybits

There's a plausible argument that the enforceability of indenture contracts was good for the people who entered into them given the socioeconomic conditions of the 18th century. I think most people would say that such contracts shouldn't be enforceable today.