Wojtek Kopczuk 🇵🇱🇺🇦
@wwwojtekk
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Economist, tax policy/inequality. Editor of @JPubEcon . Professional skeptic. Anti-illiberal. Persiflageur.
New York City
Joined February 2010
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There is just one population that you should be polling
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Oh damn
If you look at your 401k today, remember that it was all brought to you by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.
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Imagine the world where 1980s and 1990s environmentalists didn't care and we now were flooded with cheap electricity from nuclear power plants
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Among white students admitted to Harvard, 54% are athletes+legacy+dean's list+faculty/staff children (column 2). Just 10% is regular admission
Big athletic school, Harvard...
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2000: Social Security trust fund will run out in 2037.
2022: Social Security trust fund will run out in 2035.
The public: lol, you've been talking about it for 30 years and it still has not run out
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As you are trying to buy clorox wipes or n95 masks and see empty shelves, imagine that applying to almost everything every day for years. Maybe then you'll grasp a glimpse of how life under communism looked like and why any comparison to capitalist systems is, frankly, offensive.
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Get rid of standardized testing. The right way to evaluate students is on *checks notes" your ability to entertain an admission officer
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Unpopular opinion: gas prices are still too low because they don't reflect carbon emissions, but at least they got some way toward reflecting geopolitical externalities. The longer they stay high, the more they stimulate substitution, the better over the longer term
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Holistic admissions are absurd. There is no reason that a bunch of people in an admission office should make subjective decisions like this
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My favorite discourse is when both sides border insanity
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Turning pharma companies into the villains of this crisis is up there competing with the silliest agendas that I've ever seen
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My balanced take:
- private sector unions - meh, occasionally good, often a mess
- public sector unions - goddamn awful, scamming taxpayers in cooperation with politicians
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I don't know how anyone can look at the UK cases and deaths and think that (banning a variant not here yet) there is any other scenario but going back to normal.
What we are observing is PTSD, but the reality that vaccines just work amazingly well will naturally take over
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European vs US cups.
Unpopular opinion: they are about the same, it is just that the American ones are mostly filled with ice.
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I presume that "mixed" in Spain was across regions and "mixed" in Italy was on the same road
Cc
@andreamatranga
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Play it on repeat to 800,000 Polish Americans in Pennsylvania
Trump on Russia: Somebody told me the other day, they beat Hitler, they beat Napoleon. That's what they do.
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The real point
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Prediction: he took an approved drug that costs $2100 a dose, but if he recovers he'll claim that horse dewormer is what helped him
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To put it in context, it is hard to convey how much it usually takes to make a Finn smile
Average Finnish police officer loving his job when the pro-Russian protestors start misbehaving
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I stand corrected, scolding oil companies worked, they are ashamed and no longer greedy.
Meltdown in wholesale gas prices today (white line) mean serious relief at the pump (yellow line) over the next couple weeks.
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I changed my mind. We don't need an edit button.
People aren’t leaving California because of their tax rates. They’re lesbian because housing is too damn expensive
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What was Marx actually right about?
Any reason not to treat him as Freud - little lasting scientific value, mostly literary influence?
A serious question.
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My country is not somebody's backyard and neither is Ukraine
We can’t even enforce the Monroe Doctrine anymore but we’re messing around in Russia’s backyard like we own the place.
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We all know what's coming, don't we?
Tweets used to be 140 characters. Then 280. The next increment with
@elonmusk
on board is inescapable
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An absolute disgrace
Ukraine isn't a democracy. It's a State Department client state.
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Pandemic killed cities, everybody works remotely, and nobody wants to live in NYC anymore.
These are lines to view vacant apartments in NYC. We're witnessing the collapse of the American dream in real time.
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On this day, September 17 1939, 83 years ago, the Soviet Union - in coordination with Nazis - invaded Poland and domed its defence effort. For the next 21 months of the WW2 that they started, Germany and the Soviet Union were allies invading other countries and pursuing terror
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That's the level of expertise we have to deal with
There’s literally a children’s board game that demonstrates that “free-market capitalism” always leads to one person controlling everything.
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That's because you count the loan without counting the corresponding asset and because you're looking at young people
Basically, the whole shtick here is claiming that a doctor or a vet or a lawyer are poor by looking at their net worth soon after they start working
The majority of student loans are held by those with zero, or negative household wealth.
Imagine thinking canceling student debt is “elitist.”
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What I learned from this thread is that paying employees during Covid is now considered bad. They should've been all laid off
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Let me just note that I'm also a Columbia professor (and Polish) and I think that my esteemed colleague speaks utter nonsense
Professor Jeffrey Sachs [Columbia] on Bloomberg causing chaos saying US was most likely involved in Nordstream leaks according to data & other experts 😂😂😂 “even reporters tell me …. privately of course …” and that we are on a pretty dangerous path to a nuclear conflict
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How is the US high on bread?! There is barely any edible bread in the country
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I'm fine with that when their source of wealth is stolen public property or government-guaranteed monopolies.
Normalize calling American billionaires “oligarchs” too
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This is where I was when it happened, and I'm still for nuclear energy, because I understand trade-offs
the nuclear accident at Chernobyl happened. Due to prevailing weather patterns, Germany got a relatively large share of the radioactivity (at least compared to other countries in western Europe).
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"at prep school our college admission counselor..."
Exactly the point
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That's a funeral for a 22 year old killed in the line of duty. A weird thing to object to.
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From the actual article
Back in the 1990s I foolishly thought that insurance companies, because they had so much to lose, were potential allies in fight over climate against fossil fuel companies. What I hadn't considered was insurance co. would just screw policy holders.
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Communism didn't kill creativity. Dealing with censorship was creative. Jokes were creative. Living with shortages took a lot of creativity. Stealing from a workplace was often creative. Pretending to work was inspired.
i never understood “communism kills creativity ” you’re telling me people would be less inspired if they didn’t have to worry about housing and meals being accounted for whdjskdj
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Things I really like about Biden administration:
- not Trump
- Ukraine policy
1/2
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Greed and price gouging by babysitting entrepreneurs
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Admirable. A bit of math could've likely cut it to a few hours.
After three years of observing celestial patterns and tracking the satellite’s position, Brazilian photographer Leonardo Sens was finally able to take this breathtaking photo of Christ the Redeemer "holding" the Moon.
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Probably a subsistence farmer, assuming I'd survive childhood labor until adulthood
Without the constant assault of capitalism, who would you become?
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Ukrainians allowing captured Russian soldiers to call their mothers is brilliant
Everybody in Russia knows the history of misinformation, cover up and lies about what was happening with soldiers in Afghanistan and Chechnya
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A reminder which ice cream you should not buy
You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.
We call on President Biden to de-escalate tensions and work for peace rather than prepare for war.
Sending thousands more US troops to Europe in response to Russia’s threats against Ukraine only fans the flame of war.
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Wait, are we talking about young people in the richest large country on earth, living in the time of domestic peace, low crime, no draft, with the longest lifespan in human history. That generation?
Millennials have been historically screwed by forces beyond their control twice, and the effects will last their whole lives.
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Caught one in the wild
@DominicJPino
@NRO
@Brian_Riedl
What about the last 13 years after you all breathlessly fearmongered about entitlement solvency and absolutely nothing happened to any of those programs leads you to believe you should start this nonsense all over again?
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Price controls are bad, tariffs are bad, labor mobility restrictions are bad.
Minor, nitpicky caveats may be rarely considered once you understand the basic lesson
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Imagine thinking that "a quarter million dollar investment" that led to Amazon is some sort of a gotcha
Elon Musk came from a family that owned an emerald mine in Apartheid South Africa.
Bill Gates’ mom helped Microsoft get a deal with IBM.
Jeff Bezos’ garage-based start was funded by a quarter-million dollar investment from his parents.
“Self-made billionaires” are a myth.
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@GoodwinMJ
The actual decline of civilization is silly people that think that expensive trips for select few represented the pinnacle of civilization
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You should not control for "all relevant variables" in the wage gap regression and you should not do it when studying bias in admissions to Harvard.
The "gender wage gap" when controlled for all relevant variables is one penny. Women earn 99 cents for every 100 cents men earn. Which is to say that the wage gap effectively doesn't exist. But don't let facts get in the way, Joe. You never do.
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I don't have a strong view for what the consequences should have been, but the gaslighting that this is somehow normal is indeed deeply annoying
I'm astounded by how many academics are making an "everybody does it" argument. Not everybody does this! It's insulting to our intelligence to claim this is permitted or ordinary practice. Harvard requires undergrads who do this to withdraw.
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"In the westsplaining framework, the concerns of Russia are recognized but those of Eastern Europe are not."
🔥🔥🔥
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One "woke" thing that I have definitely benefitted from: normalizing "they" instead of awkward "he or she". So much better
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We have now learned that the cutting edge military power doesn't have a good army and the cutting edge technological powerhouse doesn't have a decent pharmaceutical industry.
Next thing you know, we'll learn that the rapidly declining power is doing just fine.
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Notably, he also represents the Earth as being flat
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Success, FDA sped up the process by removing itself from the process.
I’m pleased to report, through the swift action of the
@US_FDA
, state health authorities can authorize labs in their state to perform Coronavirus testing.
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Other than the drone, it's notable for showing what you see in China once you stray just a bit from glitzy parts of Beijing and Shanghai. There is a reason gdp per capita is $10,000
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I am an economist. That means that I'm paid to be confused on a much higher level than you are about things that you think you understand.
I'm a psychologist.
This means I get paid to do what most of you think you know how to do.
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It's one of these metrics that never made much sense to me as a description of economic hardship. This nicely illustrates that living paycheck to paycheck is often a choice.
Worried about inflation? More than 1 in 3 Americans earning at least $250,000 annually say they are living paycheck to paycheck. via
@atanzi
@economics
@wealth
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Utter cluelessness
for me 1900; fight in WW1, roaring 20s, great depression, fight in WW2, then experience the 50s + 60s in my 50s and 60s, enjoy my twilight years with the modern conveniences of the 70s and die in the 80s before all this internet bullshit begins.
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There are two schools of economics:
1. The school of thinking rigorously about problems (with ups and downs, dead ends, and mistakes)
2. The school of where you already know the answer. This one just works, just like religion does, because you're always right
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Sweetie, the problem is not what they spend their money on, the problem is how they got it.
No equivalence between Russian oligarchs and American entrepreneurs.
Also, the richest Americans spend money on space yachts.
Super-large yachts have become the status symbol of the billionaire class. And Russian oligarchs are not the only people who own them. While half of our people work paycheck to paycheck, members of the American oligarchy spend hundreds of millions to build their very own yachts.
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You had one guy deciding your life and death, but we are going to call it "equality". Also, the ruling class didn't have "income" because the data doesn't count fringe benefits, but it had consumption. It didn't have "wealth" but it had power.
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Here is what it means
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An open letter from economists on support for jobs and businesses in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Economists: please consider signing (at the link)
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Indeed...
Immigrants from the US to:
Belgium: 10,000
Canada: 310,000
Denmark: 10,000
France: 50,000
Norway: 20,000
Sweden: 20,000
UK: 190,000
Immigrants to the US from:
Belgium: 40,000
Canada: 890,000
Denmark: 30,000
France: 180,000
Norway: 30,000
Sweden: 50,000
UK: 750,000
“If you love socialism so much why don’t you move to Venezuela?” is largely a cheap shot.
But “If you love Nordic social democracy so much why don’t you move to Sweden?” is...kind of fair, right? There are good reasons for not wanting to move but it’s surprising how few want to.
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I'm guessing it is the longest shortest continuous path you can walk in the world
This is the longest continuous path you can walk in the world
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Zelensky is a good illustration why this is not contradictory. He displays these qualities with integrity when they are necessary. He wasn't performatively showing them off when not.
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It won't surprise that half of the comments about this mutually beneficial completely voluntary trade are that it is exploitation
Last night my 12 year old was struggling with Algebra, so I immediately posted a job for a tutor on Upwork.
Literally 10 minutes later we were Zooming with a PhD professor in Pakistan for $4/hour.
She whipped him into shape & will help him 5 hours/week now.
Impatience can be
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Imagine being proud of that
Sex is good but have you tried having your country shutting down its last nuclear power plants in 30 mn?
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What is the reason for various Tuckers and others like him to actively deny legitimacy to Ukraine? I can understand that one may have opinions about the extent of US involvement, but it goes much further than that (Let's assume they are not on payroll)
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Is the "demise of middle class" due to its inability to buy cheap housing because it interferes with shady oak trees that existing owners love?
I’m grateful to be able to share this sneak peek of
@TheSimpsons
season finale, where
@RealHughJackman
and I team up to tackle inequality and the demise of the middle class.
Here's a sneak peak of the episode. Be sure to tune in at 8pm ET/7pm CT/8pm PT this Sunday for the rest!
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Hey,
@twitter
, this
@rbreich
account is notorious for spreading disinformation. Granted, it's transparently silly and I'm against banning it, but a "cringe" label or something of that sort placed on its tweets would be warranted.
Reminder: inflation isn’t being driven by government spending. It’s being driven by a handful of giant corporations who are jacking up prices and raking in record profits.
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You may not realize, but the sole ingredients that go into making these and putting them on a store shelf are blood, sweat, and tears of this guy.
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Apparently, you should stand with (secret) police
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@IlhanMN
Population has grown by over 800% and yet presidency is stagnant at 1 president. It should be 9.3 presidents now.
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It is interesting that these days one does not read much how the end of communism has ushered in liberal utopia of peace and prosperity.
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Why are representatives tweeting things that are so easily proven wrong?
81% of deaths were among 65+ population, so already on Medicare
ONE-THIRD of COVID deaths were tied to a lack of health insurance.
I don’t know what else lawmakers need to hear to understand that we need Medicare for All.
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There are 170,000 gas stations in the US. Did we subsidize building them? Tax carbon and let the market figure out how many charging stations to build and where
Picture it: American workers building quality, affordable EVs, installing 500,000 charging stations, and electrifying 20% of our yellow school buses.
That's not some far-off future. That's the American Jobs Plan.
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I found the creepiest World Cup take. Just a fundamentally broken person
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If you happen to be of the late 19th century Italian, Jewish, Irish, Polish, etc crop, sorry, that doesn't count. Only cowboys.
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Oh Lord, give me the confidence of a geneticist speaking about economics
You just know that someone brainstormed this and decided that it was going to be a cool thing to say despite the fact that everyone on earth knows that inflation is not a tax.
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I'm sure they were free to print
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A weird way to depict massively increased efficiency
“The City and Country Population, 1821 and 1921,” from the Chicago Tribune.
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This keeps getting dumber and dumber
Wondering why your Thanksgiving groceries cost more this year? It’s because greedy corporations are charging Americans extra just to keep their stock prices high. This is outrageous.
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Voters are the worst. They do not vote for what the overwhelming majority wants.
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Socialism 𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘯 - an imaginary system. When it is claimed to be implemented, it is called "𝘣𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘮"
The New York Times concludes that Venezuela was destroyed by “brutal capitalism.” Unreal.
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It doesn't stop to amaze me that of all the legitimate complaints about government overreach, the one that gets the most traction is vaccinations that actually legitimately save lives and protect others. So many good causes to pick from and yet we end up with bs argument
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Long-term planning is great. Let's build these ships.
Things I Did Not Know: After their defeat and loss at Copenhagen in 1807, the Danes responded by planting 90,000 oak trees toward the Navy’s rebirth. The Danish Nature Agency, successor to the royal forester, informed the Defense Ministry in 2007 that their trees were ready.
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Your dear leader blocked military aid to Ukraine, tried to blackmail Zelensky, and was fawning over the aggressor two days ago
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That's the country I know.
“How’s Poland’s notoriously vociferous political divide responding to the current situation?”, I hear you ask…
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