Tag: Jason Calacanis

Eat The Rich: Income Inequality Is Destroying American Democracy

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m listening to The Week In Startup and I’m flabbergasted in the mentality of Jason Calacanis and Molly Wood. I think some of my shock comes from something we don’t talk about a lot in America — class. They’re both really, really rich and so of course they would rather think up ways to screw over workers rather than pay people more.

A lot of America’s problems come from income inequality. If we would just tax billionaires out of existence and pay the average person a living wage then I think a lot of our problems would be dramatically mitigated.

But that’s just not what’s going to happened.

We’re going to use, on a macro basis, automation and AI to destroy a wide range of jobs that we assume will always be there. Off the top of my head, I find myself worried about the 3 million high paying transportation jobs that will vanish whenever Elon Musk hooks AGI to an EV semi.

One thing that was touched upon during This Week In Startups is that as long as what AI does is “just good enough” then it will be used. If you hook up AI to androids then virtually overnight the need for a Universal Basic Income is going to become clear.

A UBI solves a lot of problems and yet it would also cause a lot of problems. Most people are lazy and they just won’t do shit if they get a UBI. What’s worse, there are also people who are extremely ambitious and they would demand the right to have SOME job, just to be able to have somewhere to go during the day and have some sense of self-fulfillment. So, it seems as though some sort of “value added” stipend would be included in which if you can do some sort of job that AGI can’t do very well then you will extra momney.

Or something.

The point is — I’m really worried about America’s instability going forward because of income inequality. There seems as though there might be a real risk of the “Petite Singularity” causing a huge pushback involving the rise of neo-Luddites.

These neo-Luddites will demand huge carve outs whereby only humans can do some jobs. Only time will tell.

A Hot Take On The ‘All-In’ Podcast

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m growing fond of listening to the tech bro podcast “All-In.” I generally don’t agree with a lot of what they say and their built-in bias to one Elon Musk. And, yet, given that I am the red headed step child of my family politically, it is useful to build up mental antibodies to their version of the “mind virus” I keep hearing about.

Sometimes what these well heeled tech bros DON’T say is just as interesting as what they do say. Take, for instance what happened in the most recent episode of the podcast. Jason Calacanis obviously went to the Dave Chappelle show where Elon Musk was booed…but he neither mentioned that he went with Musk, nor mentioned that Musk was booed.

But, as I was saying, I like a good debate and I also believe that any thinking person worth their salt should bounce up and down on what they believe, challenge what they believe, on a regular basis so they have a better sense of what it is, exactly, that they believe.

I have to admit that I even, on occasion, find myself agreeing — to an extremely limited extent — with the podcast’s resident MAGA-friendly person David Sacks. But I think that says more about how I come from a Traditionalist background and am more anti-MAGA than I am any sort of liberal. And usually whenever I “agree” with Sacks it’s on the edges where simple common sense comes into play.

Though, as an aside, I have to chuckle at how the tech bros of All-In constantly and consistently conflate the hard power of the government they want so bad with the soft power of the “woke cancel culture mob”…that hurts their fee-fees? People like Sacks, specifically, really want to burn everything to the ground because they find “libtards” hypocritical and annoying.

So what, is all I gotta say.

Yes, Biden has turned out to be far more of a progressive than a lot of people expected, but he’s good at retail politics and sometimes you gotta dance with the one that brung ya. And the MAGA hatred of the “woke cancel culture mob” all goes back to how its a movement based on hate. They’re fucking Nazis dressed up in modern garb with a thin veneer of civility and indignation shellacked on to them.

A Nazi is still a Nazi. And I fucking hate Nazis, be they MAGA or old school in nature. Fuck MAGA Nazis.

Anyway, if you’re a self-aware, thinking person, I encourage you to challenge what you believe, to get out of your silo and listen to podcasts that don’t follow your personal media narrative or reside within your social media echo chamber. You’ll keep your mind healthy.