B McGraw and William Henderson talk about best practices in urban design. What are the best principles of good urban systems? How do we reduce externalities related to urban life? This is part 1 of 2 episodes.

First we talk about the difference between urban design and housing or transit policy. Then we go over different externalities to manage. This includes urban heat, noise, mental health, traffic, carbon emissions, and more. We then talk about ways to minimize traffic accidents, the importance of grid pattern streets, and optimal zoning reforming. We then discuss densification of housing, dedicated bus lines, and the best ways to reduce noise. After this, we talk about policies that optimize mental health.

Overall, the key principles of good urban design include grid patterns, dense housing, public transit friendly streets, and lots of greenergy.

0:45: What is Urban Design? (vs. Housing & Transit)

3:16: Externalities that need to be managed

4:51: Traffic Accidents (2)

8:48: Grid patterns (2)

14:45: Zoning reform (2)

16:30: Densification (2)

17:00: Dedicated bus lanes

19:05: Noise (2)

22:40: Mental Health (2) (3)

This is the Unjerked Podcast!

What are the different political positions which exist? What does it mean to be on the left vs right? Is the traditional political compass a good way to categorize politics?

Following this, we go over various common political ideologies. On the left, this includes left-neoliberalism, social democracy, green politics, and democratic socialism. On the right, we discuss additional movements. We then talk about

00:00 Introduction

00:13 Defining Social Policy

02:03 Culture vs. Social Policy

02:57 Environmental Politics

04:08 International Relations Axes

05:00 Democracy, Civil Liberties, Rule of Law

06:50 The Four Big Axes of Politics

07:14 Common Political Ideologies

8:45 Classical Liberalism

9:48 Neoliberalism

10:38 Libertarianism

12:09 Left-wing movements

12:35 Identitarian Left

12:42 Democratic Socialism

13:32 Social Democracy

13:54 Green Politics

21:44 Right-wing movements

21:44 neoliberal right

21:10 Christian Democracy

24:36 Burkian Conservatism

26:07 Neoconservatism

27:15 Identitarian Right

28:17 Voter Behavior and Party Coalitions

32:19 Fringe Ideologies

32:22 Fascism

32:27 Juntas

32:38 Absolute Monarchies

32:56 Anarchism

33:03 Marxism/Communism

33:11 Syndicalism

This is the Unjerked Podcast!

What are the different political positions which exist? What does it mean to be on the left vs right? Is the traditional political compass a good way to categorize politics?

We first discuss what it means to be on the left vs right, the looseness of political beliefs, and the difference between party and ideology over time. We discuss the coalitions of ideologies in the context of parties as well. Then, we talk about the history of political ideology, and the growth of left vs right politics in the French revolution. Following this, we go over the modern definition of left vs right.

Then, we go over the consistency of people's political beliefs, and their symbolic vs operational beliefs.

Finally, we go over economic axes in politics, to include trade policy, fiscal policy, and monetary policy.

0:00 Intro

2:00 What it means to be left vs right

2:47 Economic, social, and international policy

3:56 Looseness of political beliefs (2)

4:20 Party vs ideology

5:00 coalitions within two party

6:47 History of political ideology

10:20 Left vs Right in the French Revolution

12:36 Modern definition of left vs right

14:07 consistency of political beliefs (2)

18:05 Symbolic vs operational ideology

22:00 Bundling of unrelated policy positions

23:00 Economic axis: trade policy (2) vs fiscal policy vs monetary policy

This is the Unjerked Podcast!

William Henderson and B. McGraw discuss U.S. agriculture subsidies—what they are, how they work, and the tradeoffs they create. The conversation covers the history and structure of these subsidies, as well as political and economic consequences.

We begin by examining the political durability of subsidies, driven in part by the disproportionate influence of rural states in the Senate. Despite the shrinking number of farmers, these programs remain deeply entrenched.

Next, we look at who benefits—mainly large agribusinesses—and contrast supply-side subsidies with programs like SNAP. We then explore New Zealand’s decision to eliminate subsidies in the 1980s, which led to higher productivity and stable employment.

We also consider national security arguments for supporting domestic food production, as well as the impact of consolidation, automation, and contract farming on labor and ownership.

Later, we question whether private markets (futures, insurance) could manage agricultural risk without government support. This leads into a discussion of grocery prices, inflation, and whether “greedflation” or broader economic forces are driving costs.

Finally, we touch on the unintended effects of subsidies on public health and the environment—like their contribution to obesity and monoculture farming—and explore climate policy, water use, and immigration’s role in farm labor.

The episode closes with a look at whether the current system is effective policy—or simply politically untouchable.

01:56 — Distributive effects and difficulty of reform

02:39 — Comparison to New Zealand’s reforms

03:03 — National security as justification

06:16 — Industrial consolidation and automation

04:20 — New Zealand outcomes and productivity

06:00 — Market price stability and crop insurance

7:44 — High prices and greedflation

09:27 — Inflation and COVID supply shocks

10:12 — National security and industrial policy

13:07 — Obesity and health outcomes

14:56 — Conspiracy theory

15:54 — Regenerative agriculture

21:52 — Environmental damage

23:58 — Subsidies and food prices

24:23 — Desert farms

27:47 — Immigration and labor supply issues

This is the unjerked podcast!

William Henderson and B. McGraw talk about agriculture policy. What kind of subsidies exist and why? This is part 1 of 2 episodes?

We first briefly discuss the different types of farming, to include a completely free-market farming, subsidized farming, and collectivized soviet-style farming. Then, we discuss the comparison of subsidy levels between different countries. New Zealand is the lowest with a near 0% level of agriculture subsidies. On the other hand, many countries with high levels of subsidies include Iceland, Japan, and Norway. We then go over an article which discusses New Zealand's decision to pull subsidies in the 1980s. This led to an increased efficiency in farm production and did not lead to reliance on imports for food.

After all of this, we go over the farm bill and similar policies which help shape the system of farm subsidies in the US. This includes price loss coverage and agricultural risk coverage, which help pay farmers if commodity prices get too low. Marketing assistance loans are similar and involve lending money when prices get low. Crop insurance helps cover for issues like severe weather, crop failure, etc. Various conservation programs incentivize the use of environmentally friendly practices.

We then talk about disaster assistance programs, specialty crop support programs, and biofuel programs.

4:20 collective farming 

6:38 OECD white paper with country comparisons

9:57 CATO article on total subsidies

13:43 Farm bill (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13)

This is the Unjerked Podcast!

William Henderson and B. McGraw talk about public transportation. What forms of transit make the most sense? This is part 2 of 2 episodes.

We first discuss gas taxes, both at the federal and state level, and how these are used to fund highway maintenance. We then discuss rail funding, which lacks a dedicated trust fund and is more volatile in availability. Then we talk about factors which increase rail transit use demand, to include neighborhood density. We then discuss congrestion prices, and the role they plan in controlling externalities associated with driving. Similarly, we go over the topic of dynamic parking pricing, which helps adjust demand for street parking.

We go over whether or not adding extra lanes is an effective method of reducing traffic. Then, we talk about various methods to reduce traffic accidents, to include more mass transit use, bicycle lanes, and fewer "stroads". Then, we discuss potential technology innovations in transportation. Finally, we go over the conspiracy theory of "15 minute cities", and whether or not this is a fair argument against walkable cities.

6:40 rail funding

12:47 density, transit, expenditures

bureacracy

culture

20:33 congestion pricing 

24:25 dynamic parking pricing

28:00 adding lanes

31:43 traffic accidents (2) (3)

41:10 technology

46:11 conspiracies

This is the Unjerked Podcast!

William Henderson and B. McGraw talk about public transportation. What forms of transit make the most sense? This is part 1 of 2 episodes.

We first discuss the international perspective on transit. The US has less public transit usage compared to other peer developed countries, although even those countries do not have full public transit penetration. We then discuss the different approaches to rail use, to include government owned rails with private and public cars, fully private but highly regulated private rails, and private rails with public cars.

Then we discuss the issue with the speed of construction in the US. Afterwards, we talk about the different transportation methods which exist, and the pros and cons of each. These include auto, bus, light rail, heavy rail, high speed rail, monorail, flying, ferries, and more.. After this, we discuss the cost of these different methods, to include the externalized costs. Finally, we go over saftey, carbon emissions, and timeliness of different methods.

3:22 international perspective (2) (3)

12:03 Government vs private sector

17:41 Speed of construction

19:40 transportation methods

27:14 pros and cons of methods

29:24 Cost comparison of methods (2)

37:25 safety

41:09 carbon emissions 

43:44 time

This is the Unjerked Podcast!

William Henderson and B. McGraw discuss welfare in the United States. What programs do we have? Is it beneficial for society on balance?

We first talk about an overview of the different types of programs. Most of the programs by dollar figure are focused on the elderly and on healthcare, with much less focused on other programs. These major programs include social security, medicare, and medicaid. After this we talk about the general best practices around welfare design, to include tapering the ending of benefits, avoiding eligibility cliffs, etc.

We then discuss the effects of welfare on crime, to include lower crime rates tied to unemployment insurance. We then talk about the effect of universal healthcare in reducing per capital healthcare costs. After this we go over the effects of welfare on birth rates and family structure, effects on economic growth, and impacts on internal labor mobility. Then we go over issues like funding issues, fraud, gaps in the system, administrative inefficiencies, and more. We then go over some general questions and comments.

0:29 Disaster insurance

3:00 Old age programs

3:13 Poverty programs

5:43 Welfare design

9:33 Welfare and crime 

10:21 Healthcare cost vs output (2) (3)

11:14 Economic effects

14:12 Birth rate / family structure (2) (3)

19:26 Effect on economic growth?

19:49 Internal labor mobility?

21:50 Funding issues

22:47 Fraud

23:41 Gaps in system

24:55 Inefficiencies

26:35 Editorializing 

30:03 Comments 

This is the Unjerked Podcast!

Additional Information:

CHIP

Head Start

LIHEAP

Medicare

Pell Grants

SNAP

SSI

SSDI

TANF

Unemployment Insurance

VA Benefits (2) (3)

WIC

Overall Stats (2)

William Henderson and B. McGraw discuss welfare in the United States. What programs do we have? Is it beneficial for society on balance?

We first discuss the different types of systems which existed before government furnished aid. This includes religious charities, family networks, and more. Then we talk about the origins of state-based social programs, to include the English poor laws, as well as the New Deal in the United States. We then discuss government vs localized charity, and the pros and cons of each. We discuss the economic benefits of social programs, to include increased productivity of people who are given a path back to employment. Then we go over the founding fathers' views on welfare - to include Thomas Paine. Then, we discuss libertarian views on the topic, such as by F.A. Hayek and Milton Friedman. Finally, we discuss the origins of anti-welfare ideology, which traces its origins partly to social darwinism.

3:19 Pre-government welfare

6:02 English poor laws

7:12 New deal

7:50 Governmental vs local welfare

9:10 Religious origin 

9:23 Productivity

11:23 Founding father

13:00 Thomas Paine

14:20 Adam Smith

15:07 Libertarianism 

16:19 FA Hayek

17:35 Social darwinism

22:09 Marxist argument 

23:25 Country comparisons

27:50 Types of welfare 

31:29 Comments

This is the Unjerked Podcast!

William Henderson and B. McGraw talk about taxes in the United States. Why do we have them? What are the different types of taxes? What are the best tax policies? This is part 2 of 2 episodes.

We discuss the tax rate of different income quintiles, both before and after transfer payments. We then discuss the net fiscal contribution each US state makes to the federal government. Next, we go over the tax rates at which government revenue is maximized, as well as the tax rates which maximize GDP growth. Next, we go over ways in which wealthier people evade taxes. We discuss the conceptual framework of corporate vs individual income vs capital gains tax. Wealthier people often avoid capital gains tax by borrowing money using stock as collateral.

We discuss several reform ideas, to include transitioning from a sales tax to a VAT tax, transitioning from property tax to land tax, closing loopholes, and finding better ways to tax capital gains (to include removing step up cost basis).

3:00 State net contribution

8:55 Revenue maximizing tax rate

10:33 Revenue maximizes capital gains tax rate

11:25 GDP growth maximization (Pg 12-14) (2)

14:48 Why wealthy can pay lower taxes (1) (2) (3)

18:05 Corporate tax avoidance

19:12 Capital gains tax

20:30 Real estate

22:13 Reform ideas (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

23:54 VAT tax

26:33 land tax (1) (2) (3)

This is the Unjerked Podcast!