Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
It’s hard to pay more for the speedy but highly skilled person, simply because there’s less effort being shown, less effort being observed, less effort being valued.
Dan Ariely • Dollars and Sense
Florida is the second most popular tourist destination in the United States, after California. The appeal is remarkably diverse: beaches, islands, nightlife, and theme parks. The most iconic one is Disney World, in Orlando, Florida. Orlando is seven miles south of Eatonville, and is the county seat of Orange County. Everywhere there are dollar stor
... See moreImani Perry • South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation
experiment in Stockton, California. A random sample of 125 residents of the city’s low-income neighborhoods were selected to receive $500 a month, no strings attached. What did they do with the cash? Pretty boring stuff. They took it to the grocery store and to Costco or used it to pay utility bills and fix up their cars. Less than 1 percent of pur
... See moreMatthew Desmond • Poverty, by America
As we’ve seen, language changes how we value goods, services, and experiences of all kinds.
Dan Ariely • Dollars and Sense
Relativity. That $5 tip George gave the server—on a free drink—and his $3.50 ATM fee don’t seem consequential compared to the stacks of chips surrounding him at the blackjack table or the $200 he was simultaneously taking out at the ATM. Those are relatively small amounts of money, and because he is thinking about them in relative terms, it is easi
... See moreDan Ariely • Dollars and Sense
Scientists estimate that the planet can handle a total material footprint of up to about 50 billion tons per year.14 That’s considered to be a maximum safe boundary. Today we’re exceeding that boundary twice over. And, as we will see, virtually all of this overshoot is being driven by excess consumption in high-income nations – consumption that is
... See moreJason Hickel • Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World
It’s not. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has meticulously tracked the spending patterns of families receiving means-tested government assistance. Not surprisingly, those receiving assistance spend a larger share of their income on necessities (housing, food) and a smaller share on entertainment, alcohol, and tobacco than other American f
... See moreMatthew Desmond • Poverty, by America
Specifically, in 1928, the top 1 percent accounted for 24 percent of all income. In 1970 the one-percenters’ share of the wealth was down to about 9 percent, the result of multiple economic dynamics and government policies, including the New Deal reforms and the post-war growth in the 1950s and 1960s of the country’s manufacturing base and, with it
... See more