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Building Tomorrow
A Libertarian Approach to the Green New Deal
Join Paul, Joe Verruni, and Peter Van Doren as they discuss why the Green New Deal is neither particularly “green,” all that “new,” nor all that great of a “deal.” However, there is a libertarian response to the Green New Deal that doesn’t just consist of “bah humbug.” There are market-based solutions that can more effectively and sustainably address carbon emissions and other environmental pollution. To illustrate that point, the hosts discuss fascinating new applications of energy storage tech that attempt to solve the “duck curve” problem limiting the adoption of renewable energy sources like wind and solar.
Should we be concerned when both political parties agree? How should libertarians think about the Green New Deal? What is the goal of the Green New Deal? How can we change emitting behavior through mechanisms other than those proposed in the Green New Deal? Will the Green New Deal take away your car (or your cows) entirely?
Further Reading:The Impossible Green Dream of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, written by Michael Grunwald
The New York Times is trying hard to clean up after AOC’s Green New Deal Mess, written by Becket Adams
The ‘Duck Curve’ Is Solar Energy’s Greatest Challenge
Related Content:Did Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal Really Save America?, Free Thoughts Podcast
The End of Doom, Free Thoughts Podcast
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The Future of Stuff
48:40|Your home is full of technological miracles, devices that your ancestors would have regarded as near magic because of the life of relative ease they provide us with. However, something is changing. In the past, we got richer by owning more stuff; but in the future, we will have more by owning less. In this final episode of Building Tomorrow, Paul talks with Cory Doctorow, Michael Munger, Ruth Cowan, and Chelsea Follett about the past, present, and future of material possession.One Landfill's Trash is the Future's Treasure
43:39|If you're the kind of person who carefully sorts out your recyclables from your trash, cleans it, and puts it out in the blue bin for pickup, you probably don't realize that as much as 90% of that material either just ends up in a landfill or, worse, is dumped into the ocean. Indeed, much of the plastic litter in the Pacific Ocean is the result of our well-intentioned but misplaced efforts at recycling since the 1990s.In this episode, we talk to an environmental economist, landfill scientist, and blockchain engineer about the future of our waste. We can efficiently sort and store our plastics in landfills for future mining operations, incentivizing good behavior via cryptocurrency rewards. We can incinerate our waste in hyper-efficient facilities that power cities and reduce our carbon footprint. Building Tomorrow means building more and better landfills.The Underpopulation Crisis
49:47|People are afraid. Afraid that they are consuming too much, emitting too much, having too many kids, and running the planet into the ground. Eight billion people seems like too many. But a growing number of experts are sounding the alarm that a far worse problem is on the horizon, an underpopulation crisis. People are having fewer kids and countries are aging. For example, by the end of the century Japan will halve its population. Those who remain will be older and poorer. We need more people, not fewer, if we want to find innovative solutions to climate change and resource crunches. For music attributions see: https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/building-tomorrow/underpopulation-crisisData is the New Guano
46:21|What happens when a raw material that is valueless suddenly becomes valuable? If it's bird guano in the 19th century, you mine it and save the agricultural economy. If its data in the late 20th century, you collect it and create a new digital economy. Music attributions can be found here: https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/building-tomorrow/guano.
Building Tomorrow is Back!
03:52|The Building Tomorrow podcast is back in a new format. This season we will be focusing on wanting more. The desire for more embraces a prosperity mindset, the belief that growth and wealth are not a zero-sum game. We will release one in depth episode per month for 6 months. We would love for you to listen along as we long for more immigrants, more data, more houses, more mammoths, and more. Happy listening!
Building Tomorrow: Under Construction
02:00|We have a special announcement about the future of Building Tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Can We Fix U.S. Politics? (with Lee Drutman & Dan Bowen)
49:17|If voting leaves you feeling tired and vaguely dissatisfied, you're not alone. Over 60% of voters aren't happy with the two party duopoly that dominates US politics; others hate the flood of negative campaign ads or feel that politics is too big or too distant to be able to effect via the voting process.But there is hope! This week, Paul talks to two political scientists, Lee Drutman and Daniel Bowen to talk about how ranked choice voting, multi-member legislative districts, and packing the House of Representatives could save our democracy from its dire situation.
The Pandemic Can't Stop, Won't Stop the Techlash
47:51|There are some things that even a pandemic cannot stop. One of those things is political pressure to "do something" about Big Tech. Paul checks in with Matthew Feeney and Will Duffield to get an update on the state of the techlash. Furthermore, this year many of the major social media platforms have ramped up their fact-checking operations in an attempt to combat disinformation about the pandemic and partisan politics, but it is possible that they have opened a Pandora's Box of unintended consequences by doing so.