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James Medlock

@jdcmedlock

More good things for everyone. Public sector appreciator. Tax and welfare policy knower. Hyperinflation doubter.

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Latest posts by James Medlock @jdcmedlock

Immigration Theory of Everything colliding with reality.

06.03.2026 17:54 πŸ‘ 254 πŸ” 37 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 1

It is far more important to address the burdens at the bottom of the income distribution and this takes revenue that could otherwise do that.

05.03.2026 20:54 πŸ‘ 19 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

If the 60-80th percentile are struggling, things are even worse below that. We don't have to be constrained by who pays income tax, we can just give everyone money.

05.03.2026 20:51 πŸ‘ 24 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0

The federal income tax is already quite progressive. This will only fuel conservative talking points about how x% of people don't pay it (which conveniently ignores all the payroll taxes, state & local taxes, etc that everyone pays).

05.03.2026 19:36 πŸ‘ 202 πŸ” 10 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 0

This is a bad plan, it would give nothing to the bottom 40% while giving the most to people in the 60-80th percentiles of the income distribution.

05.03.2026 19:32 πŸ‘ 442 πŸ” 70 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 3

Nope

04.03.2026 22:40 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Estimating the Cost and Impacts of the SSI Restoration Act Stephen NuΓ±ez and Jack Landry find that the SSI Restoration Act would cut poverty among SSI households by nearly 60 percent while updating and strengthening the program.

Instead of doing bad things I’d simply do good things rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

04.03.2026 19:54 πŸ‘ 200 πŸ” 16 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

Hey that’s about the cost of the SSI Restoration Act, which would cut recipient poverty by 60%, eliminate marriage penalties, and modernize draconian asset limits.

04.03.2026 19:54 πŸ‘ 2162 πŸ” 682 πŸ’¬ 41 πŸ“Œ 15
Preview
Estimating the Cost and Impacts of the SSI Restoration Act Stephen NuΓ±ez and Jack Landry find that the SSI Restoration Act would cut poverty among SSI households by nearly 60 percent while updating and strengthening the program.

SSI supports 7.4M low-income seniors & people with disabilities but outdated rules and low benefits leave millions in poverty.

Our new paper from @socio-steve.bsky.social and @jacklandry.bsky.social models what would happen if Congress modernized SSI. The results are striking. πŸ§΅πŸ‘‡

Full report:

03.03.2026 14:25 πŸ‘ 67 πŸ” 34 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 4

I get why so much of the Trump admin messaging is done through extremely online memes - when they open their mouths and try to speak in complete sentences they usually make things worse.

03.03.2026 18:37 πŸ‘ 326 πŸ” 35 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
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Strange times for someone whose engagement with politics began with protesting the Iraq war, but you know what, big tent!

03.03.2026 16:40 πŸ‘ 163 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0
03.03.2026 16:30 πŸ‘ 578 πŸ” 67 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 1

The concept of "the linear progression of time" has defeated so many over the last few years

02.03.2026 01:55 πŸ‘ 52 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Hell yeah

02.03.2026 01:47 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I'm far from an anti-interventionist, but whatever real challenges there are to making policy in our own country, we should have an additional measure of humility when it comes to shaping other countries (especially when the policy is implemented via bombing).

02.03.2026 01:46 πŸ‘ 510 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 1
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It's funny to me when people who love to go on about second order effects of economic policies and the challenges of central planning without local knowledge suddenly drop all of that when it comes to foreign policy.

02.03.2026 01:45 πŸ‘ 1721 πŸ” 171 πŸ’¬ 67 πŸ“Œ 49

There are two types of Trump II appointees. Guys you haven't heard of because they're 23 year old groypers, and guys you vaguely remember from some scandal revealing poor moral character.

27.02.2026 05:18 πŸ‘ 955 πŸ” 231 πŸ’¬ 12 πŸ“Œ 3

"...taking a great financial burden off the people that I love." To be specific, billionaires.

25.02.2026 03:24 πŸ‘ 298 πŸ” 48 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 1

Based and Shoup-pilled

25.02.2026 03:23 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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ah, the discourse...

24.02.2026 03:42 πŸ‘ 760 πŸ” 39 πŸ’¬ 40 πŸ“Œ 19
Preview
Three Ways Terminal AI Has Changed How I Work (And Whether It's Coming for My Job) How terminal AI compresses setup, robustness checks, and iteration without replacing judgment, and whether Olivia Rodrigo caused the inflation wave.

If you're not burned out on thoughtful, well-reasoned posts that look at the pros and cons of using AI (LLMs) as a tool, this from @mtkonczal.bsky.social is a good one.

If you get bogged down in the middle, do still read the concluding paragraphs.

newsletter.mikekonczal.com/p/three-ways...

19.02.2026 20:05 πŸ‘ 22 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 2

Emergency pod time

19.02.2026 05:29 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Looking into it

19.02.2026 02:26 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Having humiliated myself in the arena of sports analytics, I must now relegate myself back to economics where the standards are much lower

19.02.2026 02:14 πŸ‘ 15 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

@grantbrisbee.bsky.social can you print this skeet out and slip it under the giants analytics office door, it's very important

18.02.2026 20:58 πŸ‘ 51 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

One year ago...

18.02.2026 19:14 πŸ‘ 493 πŸ” 36 πŸ’¬ 12 πŸ“Œ 1

As a Giants fan I'm doing some research on our new starter.

Years he puked during a game:

2018: 3.29 ERA
2019: 3.72 ERA
2025: 3.31 ERA
Average: 3.44 ERA

Years he didn't puke during a game:

2020: 5.30 ERA
2021: 3.22 ERA
2022: 4.73 ERA
2023: 4.12 ERA
2024: 5.84 ERA
Average: 4.64 ERA

18.02.2026 18:34 πŸ‘ 157 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 11

This is the way...

16.02.2026 03:24 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

And where it does, it'll often be a disruptive reallocation of labor. But I still am bullish on our ability of finding new jobs to do, so I don't think it'll change the labor force participation rate over the long run.

16.02.2026 03:20 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0