https://archive.is/k6hU4

For those who don’t have a plugin to bypass WSJ paywall

Here in Japan, a chain has a cheese burger with beef from Kobe, caramelized onions, and gravy made from the drippings for 7.50USD Half that if you want it with regular beef.

I investigated why things are so cheap and businesses can have the weirdest hours (there’s a bar in Tokyo that’s only open for 5 hours a week on fridays), they tax unused commercial property (for certain definitions of unused, like in rural areas just throwing some gravel down and letting your neighbor park there for a few bucks can be enough to dodge the tax), so companies offer extremely competitive rates to get businesses in. The .4% interest rate and very cheap remodeling costs (except plumbers for some reason) serve to keep startup more accessible, so places don’t have to be super profitable to exist. The taxes work in conjunction with the interest rates to keep banks and capital firms from just buying everything up with the free money to establish a local monopoly and drive up prices. There’s probably other things driving down home and commercial property costs, it’s mindboggling to see a 3 floor+attic, 800sqft/floor building in the center of a city with 10 million people and have the business owner say he’s renting it because the owner wanted 2.5m to buy the whole thing, and that was too much.

I know China manages to keep commercial property somewhat cheap by having 5 year plans and SoEs/universities guarantee the commercial sectors have the inputs such as steel, concrete, and skilled labor they’ll need at a specific price point, but I’ve never managed to talk to someone about tax policies and the like.

“british” crown family.

If that was what they were setting up, they could have done more to characterize them, show us what tendencies or how their lack of ideology makes them susceptible to manipulation, the message I got was just "look at these paranoid, incompetent, trigger-happy, overly-dramatic idiots.

Like there’s historical examples to draw on for what Dedra is planning, from the IRA assassinating their own after British intelligence fabricated evidence others were traitors to Russian police having SR assets on payrole who participated in assassinations to get in with SR groups and identify them in the 1800s, to the FBI’s varied tactics to destroy or render groups ineffectual that would all be more interesting than some group that’s easily manipulated because they’re just a bunch of morons.

There’s some very weird ml groups, but you just made that up, if not, you’d have said which org.

Nope, when you poll on individual policies, they’re way to the left of the democrats.

The democrats showcase healthcare bill wasn’t “subsidies for employer-based health insurance, that you have no idea what it’s going to cost and have to buy at a specific time of year by going to one of 50 sites provided by your state at a specific time of year and filling out a bunch of forms or face a tax penalty, with a sliding scale based on income, marriage status, and other factors” because that’s more popular than “free healthcare”.

Same if you ask americans about Biden (and Harris’s) policies of “loan forgiveness for PELL grant recipients up to X dollars depending on age, loan repayment status, income, parent’s income, and whether you were born on a prime-numbered date” vs “free college”

The democrats compromise their bills, not because there’s a bunch of “moderates” who are exactly between democrat and republican who will vote for democrats if they promote garbage versions of progressive bills that don’t actually help anyone, but because they know those versions are less likely to pass and be easier to chip away at, and therefore won’t piss off their billionaire patrons.

I kinda felt like there was a lot of filler. They didn’t need to spend an hour of the first two episodes focusing on drama within the group of dipshits who presumably

I think I see the confusion. A capitalist is someone who owns a significant amount of capital. China obviously has capitalists. Liberalism is the philosophy of capitalism. China does have liberals, but there’s been some pushback over the last decade or so.

I mean you kinda can, see China.

Why doesn’t the article tell us exactly what those demands are? Last time the sticking point was that Israel would resume bombing in 2 weeks and continue occupying parts of Gaza.

Hamas was supported by Israel to fight Fatah, not the PA. The Palestinian Authority is an Israeli puppet.