Bo and Ben discuss impeachment, social media crackdowns, and an essay defending big businesses by Matt Yglesias. They agree that at least in principle Donald Trump should be impeached and convicted. His actions after the election have been repellent, and they should be punished forcefully. They are uncertain about social media curation. Social media presents unique challenges, and easy answers are hard to find. However, they agree that social media has almost certainly degraded discourse and has encouraged a kind of performative politics that is lamentable.

Finally, they discuss Matt Yglesias’s piece, “Small business is not the answer,” which argues that we should not confuse bigness with anti-trust violations; and that big businesses are more innovative and better paying than small businesses. It’s easy to have fond nostalgia about small shops and businesses, but they are generally inefficient and bad for workers and customers. Bigness is not bad. A lack of competition is. And creating a more equitable economy does not require attacking big firms; it requires pro-wage policies and a more progressive tax code.

Yglesias’s paper: https://www.slowboring.com/p/small-business-is-not-the-answer