• 3 Posts
  • 195 Comments
Joined 9 months ago
cake
Cake day: August 19th, 2025

help-circle







  • Getting rid of unanimity is going to be an issue, I think it’s better to limit the degree to which unanimity can be employed and to which EU-wide votes could affect the regional areas. For example, if the EU were seized by far-right parties, whether or not they held a majority, then what?

    I think the EU’s first priorities above all must be:

    1. To safeguard itself and the world against fascism.
    2. To address the causes of rising fascism, without creeping further into autocracy (a la Patriot Act).

    All other elements are secondary.

    This means we need, in no particular order:

    a. To combat social media algorithms
    b. Get people off corporate controlled social media, towards social media controlled by the people themselves.
    c. Green up ASAP. The sooner we will be self-sufficent, the sooner we reap the benefits. Solar, wind, water, even nuclear.
    d. Try to fling the US back into democracy ASAP.
    e. Destroy Russia’s military capacities.
    f. Support own small and mid-sized industries and services.



  • It’s also not just median inequality-adjusted net disposable GDP (PPP) per capita.* That measure is mostly useful for looking at what people can effectively buy, so I’ll call that the “Genuine Economic Prosperity Index” (GEPI).

    * Explanation of that wordful

    Median = 50% of people have more or less than that
    inequality-adjusted = takes economic inequality into account, so a society with high inequality will score worse. The Gini index does this, basically. net disposable = after tax and regular expenses (rent, groceries, healthcare…)
    GDP = how much is produced
    PPP = how much one can buy per ‘unit’ produced
    per capita = per person

    But when you have a lot of money and nothing much is accessible, then there’s not much. Vice versa, you might not have a lot of material wealth, but you have all of the basics and good friendships. That’s invaluable.

    You also want to look at the Social Progress Index, which looks at for example electrification, access to water, inclusivity, equity, housing, education, healthcare coverage, environmental quality, and so on.

    The inequality-adjusted HDI is also handy, and personally I also like the Copenhagenisation Index (which looks at bicycle friendliness). Another is to look at how much % of businesses are decentral, unionised worker-owned cooperatives (DUWOCs) with little income/wealth/net worth differences. The more, the better.