William Henderson and B. McGraw talk about whether we are worse off now than we were in the past. In what ways are we better off than we were 70 years ago or 140 years ago? In what ways are we worse off? Overall, are we as a society in a good or bad place right now?  This is Part 1 of 2 episodes.

4:03 Crime

4:42 War and Conflict (2) (3)

8:21 Health 

9:02 Infectious disease

11:05 Cancer deaths

12:24 Metabolic disease

16:38 Addictive food 

17:59 Global health development

20:26 Health insurance coverage

21:00 Real median household income

24:26 Real disposable per capital personal income

25:00 Food as percent of budget

26:19 Debt servicing as percent of household budget

27:42 Financial obligations ratio

28:37 Household debt to GDP

29:23 Transportation as percent of spending

30:17 Level of education

30:57 Global real GDP per capital

31:50 Minority rights

32:40 Regulation

32:51 Lifestyle: travel

33:45 Technology

35:00 Nuclear war

37:00 US Inequality

39:41 Global inequality 

41:35 Consumer debt service payments as percent of disposable personal income

42:17 Democracy

43:38 Misinformation

45:16 Happiness and sense of purpose 

William Henderson and B. McGraw talk about local vs national politics.  This is Part 2 of 2 episodes.

We first discuss comparisons in spending patterns and budgets between local, state, and federal governments. These include discussions around public housing spending, social insurance, law enforcement, national security, and more. Then we discuss the different tax structures at the local and national level. This includes the higher amount of revenue coming from payroll and income tax at the federal level, compared to more revenue from property and sales taxes at the local level. After this, we discuss some of the reasons behind the lack of interest in local news. This includes a drop in local news, lack of interest in less salient local issues, the transient nature of young people, and more.

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2:31 Local vs federal incarceration

4:53 Public housing spending

5:43 Social insurance

6:21 Law enforcement

8:45 National security budget

11:07 Fiscal responsibility of federal vs local

13:36 Taxes (2) (3)

19:46 Federal transfers (2)

21:00 Drop in local news

25:00 Local politics is not interesting

25:53 Transience of younger people (2)

28:50 Accelerationist argument

32:40 Supremacy clause in practice

36:23 Social issues at the national vs local level

William Henderson and B. McGraw talk about local vs national politics.  This is Part 1 of 2 episodes.

We first discuss our thesis on why local politics matters - it has more control over our lives than we think, and it's the pipeline into running for national office. We discuss the massive number of uncontested elections in the United States, and the low participation rate in local elections. Specifically, we discuss how the Presidential election has the highest participation rate, followed by other federal elections, then state elections, then local elections. We then discuss the constitutional basis for state vs federal political power. Specifically, we discuss the role of the 10th amendment as well as the supremacy clause. Then we discuss the concepts of home rule and Dillon's rule, the role of states and municipalities in incarceration, the number of government employees at each level of government, and the budget size of each level of government.

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0:52 Thesis on local politics

6:16 Voter participation rate

11:35 Uncontested elections

13:50 Participation in elections depends on size of municipality

16:02 Pipeline into federal politics

19:26 Constitutional basis for state vs federal (2)

22:25 Dillons and home rule (2)

25:48 Prison population

33:44 Number of government employees (2)

36:15 Budgets

This is the Unjerked Podcast!

William Henderson and B. McGraw talk about trade and industry.  This is Part 1 of 2 episodes.

0:52 Specialization

2:05 Higher real output

3:48 Trade freedom and GDP per capital

4:08 Rust belt and social disintegration

5:17 Price vs quality competition

10:14 Targeted education?

10:55 Can we compete on quality in industrials

13:10 Difficulty of competing on price

15:31 Modular nuclear in Appalachia?

16:12 Comparing the loss of agriculture jobs to loss of industrial jobs

19:05 Reddit/Twitter arguments

29:48 Tariffs

34:35: Neo-mercantilism & Autarky

36:06 Other solutions?

William Henderson and B. McGraw talk about trade and industry.  When did neoliberalism first start? What are the pros and cons of trade? This is Part 1 of 2 episodes.

1:22 Good Economics Bad Economics

8:23 Diocletian & feudalism

11:01 Mercantilism

15:10 Neoliberalism

18:16 Industrialization in the United States

22:44 Deindustrialization (2)

27:00 Politics of free trade (2) (3)

William Henderson and B. McGraw talk about immigration.  What kind of visas are there?  How many immigrants are arriving legally and illegally? What effects are there on the economy and home prices?  This is Part 2 of 3 episodes.

6:05 Crime rates of immigrants lower than native citizens

7:42 Crime Rates in Europe

7:57 Crime and second generation immigrants

9:04 Europe crime rates among second generation immigrants (2) (3)

10:00 Terrorism and immigration

11:39 Fentanyl

19:00 Assimilation and integration

22:51 Tolerant backgrounds integrate better

28:47 Reform ideas

William Henderson and B. McGraw talk about immigration.  What kind of visas are there?  How many immigrants are arriving legally and illegally? What effects are there on the economy and home prices?  This is Part 2 of 3 episodes.

1:07 points based system

1:38 family based system

3:19 visa caps (2) (3)

3:52 types of work visas

5:52 Percent of immigrants here illegallly (2)

6:26: Overstaying visas

7:08 Asylum seeker

19:20 OECD report on immigration and the economy

20:55 Wage suppression (2) (3)

28:42 Immigration and inequality

29:40 Entrepreneurship

30:15 Fiscal impacts

33:00 Housing prices (2) (3)

William Henderson and B. McGraw talk about immigration.  How much immigration is there?  Where are immigrants coming from? What's the difference between illegal immigration and asylum?  This is Part 1 of 3 episodes.

3:40 Where immigrants come from

6:43 Percent of US population which is foreign born

9:05 Requirements for entering the US in the early 20th century

12:34 Birth right citizenship

13:34 Ethnic makeup of US immigrants

14:43 Countries of origin

19:05 Asylum seekers

20:15 Countries people are claiming asylum from

24:45 Asylum outcomes

29:55 Is Latin America getting more or less violent

William Henderson and B. McGraw talk about corruption.  What exactly is corruption? What forms of corruption are there? How can it be prevented or mitigated?  This is Part 3 of 3 episodes.

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3:02 Rule by AI

6:04 Politicians trading stock

7:30 Corruption incentives

8:50 Income inequality and corruption

9:30 Extraction economies

10:55 Wage inequality in the public sector

12:46 Pension to prevent corruption

16:17 term limits

16:35 Level of transparency

17:50 Rule of law

19:00 Impunity

20:13 Weak Institutions

21:19 Civic culture

22:15 Corruption & economic growth (2) (3)

23:00 Political instability

23:20 Investment efficiency

24:27 Administrative performance

25:18 Increases income inequality and poverty

27:00 Transparency mechanisms

27:50 Free press

28:47 Higher government salaries (2)

30:34 Gender equality and meritocracy

30:50 Democracy & corruption

32:04 Political Institutions

William Henderson and B. McGraw talk about corruption.  What exactly is corruption? What forms of corruption are there? How can it be prevented or mitigated?  This is Part 2 of 3 episodes.

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44: Revolving door

7:58 Corruption of national vs local politics

8:51 Kids for cash for-profit jail controversy

12:30 amendment pay raise

13:00 term limits and corruption (1) (2) (3) (4)

15:51 Incumbency advantage

18:02 who watches the watchmen?

19:21 Corruption in historical societies

20:40 Pork barrel spending

23:40 Does corruption increase or decrease efficiency?

27:05 jailing politicians

29:19 Corruption in revolutionary societies