Acton Unwind

This week, Eric Kohn, Sam Gregg, and Dan Hugger discuss what Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes’ Met Gala tax-the-rich dress stunt says about the current state of our elites and of elite culture. Are our elites so frivolous because we’ve become frivolous? Or is it the other way around? And why are we so preoccupied with identifying hypocrisy rather than observing and highlighting the underlying implications of that hypocrisy, and the tributes that vice are paying to virtue when we find them? Then, they discuss the email sent to observant Jews at Barnard College in New York City, in effect demanding that they violate their Shabbat obligations to utilize technology for Covid-19 symptoms and to participate in contact tracing. Why is religious freedom so often an afterthought?

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A lady and her dress, &c. | Jay Nordlinger, National Review

Barnard College Bureaucrat Apologizes After Using COVID-19 Protocols To Target Jewish Students | Daniella Greenbaum Davis, The Federalist

Norm MacDonald on Bill Cosby

How 'elite overproduction' and 'lawyer glut' could ruin the U.S. | Peter Turchin, Bloomberg

Congress Is Weak Because Its Members Want It to Be Weak | Yuval Levin, Commentary

The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium | Martin Gurri

Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010 | Charles Murray

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This week, Eric Kohn, Stephen Barrows, and Dan Churchwell discuss the new vaccine mandate President Joe Biden has announced for businesses larger than 100 employees, to be administered by OSHA. In what ways are they failing to consider the role of incentives, and what unintended consequences might this effort have? Will it just drive people further into their political corners and continue to undermine faith in our institutions? Then, they discuss a new piece in Wired from Azeen Azhar about the concept of exponential growth. Are we prepared for a time when technological growth happens at a blinding pace? Can we even effectively prepare for it? Are we at all prepared to cope with the unrest that it will create?

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The Exponential Age will transform economics forever | Wired

The Way Amazon Uses Tech to Squeeze Performance Out of Workers Deserves Its Own Name: Bezosism | WSJ

The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger | Marc Levinson

The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation | Carl Benedikt Frey

Ezra Klein Interviews L.M. Sacasas | New York Times

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This week, Eric Kohn, Sam Gregg, and Stephen Barrows discuss the corporate reactions to SB 8, the new abortion law in Texas, including the pledge from the rideshare company Lyft to pay for any potential legal fees for drivers, as well as to make a $1 million contribution to Planned Parenthood. Is this just responding to the market and what their customers want? Or are politics overwhelming corporate decision making and leading them astray? Then, they discuss the strict Covid-19 lockdown measures in Australia. Will political leaders experience any kind of comeuppance for over-promising and under-delivering on dealing with the pandemic? And finally, Eric, Sam, and Steve all reflect on the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

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Defending drivers and women’s access to healthcare | Lyft

Josh Szeps tweet thread

Gray Connolly tweet thread

Australia’s Crazy Covid Response | City Journal

20 for 20 podcast: 20 Stories for 20 Years Since 9/11

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This week on Acton Unwind, Sam Gregg, and special guests Dan Hugger and Michael Miller discuss the ongoing developments in Afghanistan as we approach the 31st deadline. Then, they discuss the $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill and how we can look to C.S. Lewis for guidance on how to respond. What is human infrastructure? Is the United States a civilization-building nation? Is all truth subjective? 

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Biden’s ‘stimulus’ for a growing economy is all about central control 

Afghanistan I fought for lacks foundation for freedom 

A Taliban 9/11 - William McGurn 

Bio | Michael Miller 

Bio | Dan Hugger 

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This week on Acton Unwind, Eric Kohn, Sam Gregg, and special guest Mustafa Akyol discuss the latest developments in Afghanistan, as the United States works feverishly to get Americans out of the country. How many refugees should the United States accept? What will rule by the Taliban look like? Have they changed at all, as some people have suggested? Then, Eric and Sam discuss the FDA’s final approval of the COVID vaccines, the lockdowns in Australia and New Zealand and the resistance they have produced, and whether our elites and civic leaders are more incompetent than they were in the past, or whether the velocity and availability of information just makes it seem that way.

Mustafa Akyol

Reopening Muslim Minds with Mustafa Akyol - Acton Line

Welcoming the stranger: The dignity and promise of Afghan refugees - Joseph Sunde

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This week on Acton Unwind, Eric Kohn, Sam Gregg, and Dan Hugger discuss the collapse of the Afghanistan government as the United States withdraws from the country nearly 20 years after September 11th and the beginning of combat operations there. We were told a collapse might happen in a year. Instead, it took days. What lessons should be learned from this? And how are we to trust our institutions when they’re constantly shown to be either wrong or lying to us? August 15 marked the 50th anniversary of President Richard Nixon taking the United States off the gold standard. How much of the economic turbulence in the decades since can be blamed on this decision? And, what role can cryptocurrencies play in the future of monetary policy?

“Why, as a Muslim, I Defend Liberty” by Mustafa Akyol

“Islam and Economics: A Primer on Markets, Morality, and Justice” by Ali Salman

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In this, the inaugural edition of Acton Unwind, Eric Kohn, Sam Gregg, and Stephen Barrows discuss the extension of the CDC's unconstitutional eviction moratorium, the Biden administration's economically problematic proposal for free community college, and the New Right's infatuation with Viktor Orbán's Hungary.

‘Small-Time Landlords “Hanging on By Their Fingernails” as Eviction Moratorium Drags On’ - National Review

A Landlord Says Her Tenants Are Terrorizing Her. She Can’t Evict Them. - New York Times

Making community college free has hidden costs - Detroit News

Acton Institute

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