May Day Irritations

Pre-May Day blurbs. Some old, some new.

1. Yglesias believes in one dollar one vote. I hear the price of foie gras has gone up alot over the last decade. Must be because Americans prefer it. The real surprise is given the massive increase in concentrations of wealth, why land prices in the urban core have not become even more expensive. That the 99% who cannot buy land in the urban core continue to prefer to buy their own little spot of land farther away, and consequently live in less dense areas is a trend that has held up over a thousand years, and is not surprising at all, particularly as transportation and communication continues to become more efficient. But I don’t understand how the left can idealize living in the core while ignoring the centrality of land ownership and getting out from under the thumb of economic rent extraction by landlords. Handing over 1/3 of your income to a small group of incumbents is not fun. The automobile and similar increases in transportation efficiencies were viewed as liberating because they were, in fact, liberating. Perhaps new modalities are needed now, but moving back into the core is not going to happen.
2. Last May Day, Obama did not dissapoint, joining many other presidents in declaring May 1 Loyalty Day. Who wants to place bets on what our President will do today as workers from around the world march?
3. A beautiful post
4. Now more than ever, I am reminded of this gem. In particular: “Furthermore, even when moderate adjustments could be made, they tend to be resisted, because any simplification discomfits elites.”