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Dave Johnson

@dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud

mastodon 4.6.6

I live in the UK now. !!! I love my allotment.

I was a Senior Fellow at Campaign for America's Future, doing a lot of writing, radio & some TV.

In Silicon Valley I was in various positions at various companies. And before that I was a videogame designer at Atari & Imagic.

I was an AFSCME Chief Steward in Ann Arbor.

I am @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud at Twitter.

#ClimateChange #USPolitics #SocialJustice #MMT #HealthcareForAll #democracy #corruption #Toriesout #EndFossilFuel

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19 Posts

Joined March 03, 2020

Seeing the Forest:

https://seeingtheforest.com

MMT: We CAN Have Nice Things (MMT):

https://wecanhavenicethings.com

Imagine Democracy:

https://democracyandcommunity.org

Government Cheese - chronicling the collapse of democracy:

https://governmentcheese.info

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Dave Johnson @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud · Jan 27, 2025

Why does "the news" tell the stories of the freed Israeli hostages, but not the freed Palestinian hostages?

What happened to BOTH was terrible.

PS Why were there so many more Palestinian hostages?

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Dave Johnson @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud · Jan 27, 2025

Modern Monetary Theory (#MMT) explains money is created by govt, not tax "revenue" or "borrowing." Govts do not round up gold before they can spend.

Inflation is controlled by managing economies and directing resources at bottlenecks that are raising prices, not superstitiously spending too little or raising rates to harm the economy and "cut demand."

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Dave Johnson @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud · Jan 27, 2025

The JOB of government in a democracy is to spend & manage to make people's lives better. It is also to redistribute when excesses occur and that means taxing the wealthiest and their corporations.

Spend for the public good. They do not need to round up gold to do that. They need to manage.

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Dave Johnson @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud · Jan 27, 2025

US & UK

If you keep telling people your "system" - decisionmaking of, by & for the wealthy - is a democracy, then of course people are going to conclude democracy sucks and turn toward authoritarians who promise a better life.

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Dave Johnson @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud · Jan 27, 2025

UK austerity shows that eating the seed corn kills long-term prospects.

It makes it seem like politicians are solving problems. But eventually the seed corn runs out - infrastructure breaks down, healthcare system collapses, etc.

And then the costs of fixing things are enormous. NHS destroyed. Infrastructure crumbling. Economy stalled.

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Dave Johnson @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud · Jan 27, 2025

Inequality is rising with most income gains going to the already-wealthy.

If govt continues to insist spending can only come from tax "revenue" then the choice is obvious. Govt has to increase taxes on the wealthy to "pay for" NHS, pub services, infrastructure, etc.

(That also fights inequality.)

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Dave Johnson @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud · Jan 27, 2025

Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is an explanation of how money works.

It doesn't have associated "policies" but it does free people up to imagine what governments could do if they'd just drop the scarcity-of-money superstition ideology belief that they have to round up gold to "pay for" things.

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Dave Johnson @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud · Jan 27, 2025

"Cut taxes for the wealthy and their corporations. They will use the extra money to provide jobs and increase pay and benefits."

The US & UK fell for that. The UK even privatized water, energy, transportation, mail etc.

Now we have massive inequality and political unrest.

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Dave Johnson @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud · Dec 17, 2024

Enshittification - David Roberts & Cory Doctorow. I want to recommend this excellent podcast episode as the BEST explanation of the corporate power crisis in the US. Absolutely great!!

https://www.volts.wtf/p/can-we-avoid-the-enshittification

#enshittification

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Dave Johnson @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud · Dec 17, 2024

I just checked in on news of what's happening in the US.

The latest Republican hero is a guy who strangled a homeless guy in a subway car, for being annoying.

And, of course, another school shooting.

But I live in the UK now, so...

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Dave Johnson @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud · Dec 16, 2024

"Market solutions: (neoliberalism) is the ideology that society should be ruled by "markets," not democracy.

But markets are by definition controlled by the wealthy. OF COURSE it pushed all the wealth up to a few. OF COURSE it brought austerity - cuts in govt - for the rest.

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Dave Johnson @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud · Dec 16, 2024

The JOB of govt in a democracy is to:

Regulate to protect the public from exploitation by wealthy and powerful interests, and

Spend what is needed to make people's lives better.

It's that simple.

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Dave Johnson @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud · Dec 16, 2024

Here is why budget deficits in the US are bad:

Because Republicans understand money. They create money to help their constituents - the rich.

When Democrats are in office Republicans drive deficit fear to convince Democrats not to help their constituents - the public - which hurts them in elections.

PS Same for the UK.

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Dave Johnson @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud · Jun 20, 2023

Replying to @solownh@mstdn.party

@solownh@mstdn.party Never do that.

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Dave Johnson @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud · Jun 17, 2023

The reason Republicans go after trans people, CRT, etc is they have professionals who have done polling & focus groups & examined the psychology telling them there are effective targets.

As with everything they do, the goal is to get the public to move power to them so they can use that power to benefit their benefactors.

Tax cuts, get kill regulations that protect the public but impede profits, privatize public goods, etc.

This is why they do it.

#Republicans #power #trans #crt

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Dave Johnson @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud · Nov 19, 2022

Replying to @TRiG@mastodon.ie

@TRiG Yep. Also we have to find a functioning democracy to try it out.

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Dave Johnson @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud · Nov 19, 2022

Replying to @TRiG@mastodon.ie

@TRiG I think a functioning democracy should be able to handle that.

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Dave Johnson @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud · Nov 19, 2022

Replying to @DystopicRedhead@mastodonapp.uk

@DystopicRedhead The tech industry developed since the Reagan years, when they broke unions and stopped enforcing regulations. So the industry just ignores the rules. People IN the tech industry are younger than those years and have no memory of that, The industry also purges people who pass a certain age.

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Dave Johnson @dcjohnson@mastodon.cloud · Nov 19, 2022

Replying to @DystopicRedhead@mastodonapp.uk

@DystopicRedhead @llebrun The government used to do that. Things were declared to be public utilities and regulated for the common good. The telephone system was regulated because the "network effect" meant everyone had to be on the same system or the system wouldn't work. That is Twitter for the "town hall" effect, and Facebook for connecting with friends and relatives.

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