Top all-time · #4509
Devin Helton
Personal blog · devinhelton.com · on HN as devinheltoneconomicspolitics
Devin Helton's personal blog at devinhelton.com covers economics and politics. Since 2015, 17 different Hacker News readers have linked it 32 times, most often “Do jobs that require college, really require college?”. The last post was in 2017, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (9) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Devin Helton's essays on property rights, public choice, the national debt and mid-century urban life, including West Philadelphia. One commenter calls his national debt piece very clear.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 9 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Constructing a more accurate version of reality
Most-linked posts?
- /principles-of-formalism3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2016-12-12
- Do jobs that require college, really require college?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-12-14
- Great Problems: The Economic Classes and Their Respective Plights2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-07-27
- Great Problems: An Epidemic of Rent-Seeking2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-12-11
What Hacker News says?
this isn’t a disagreement on tax policy, this is advocating hatred and violence. I think some "both-sides-ism" is in order here. From the perspective of the right, the left is also advocating hatred, violence and is also trying to do an end-around to thwart democracy. Consider: - The riots we've had in four different cities, riots that occurred before the facts of the case were even known, and which white people wer…
Comment linking /hate-group-history
on “Peter Thiel, YC, and hard decisions”Submitted How many jobs really require college? as a story · 258 points
HN discussionIndividuals haven't owned much in a very long time; we've been physical serfs living on someone else's land for even longer. You only "own" something so long as you pay taxes (aka rents) for the right to do so, otherwise someone, usually the government, will take it from you. Even if you don't want to play along, you can only be somewhere public for so long until you're loitering and subject to fines (more rents), c…
Comment linking /2013/04/14/rent-seeking-economy/
on “Sonos: users must accept new privacy policy or devices may “cease to function””Submitted Great Problems: An Epidemic of Rent-Seeking as a story · 132 points
HN discussionI mean people who say stuff like that are almost without fail racist sexist shitheads but I had to dig a bit further for proof: https://devinhelton.com/hate-group-history https://devinhelton.com/principles-of-formalism
Comment linking /principles-of-formalism
on “How many jobs really require college?”Submitted Why the National Debt Is the Wrong Problem to Care About as a story · 12 points
HN discussionJust check his other posts: Racist: https://devinhelton.com/hate-group-history Sexist: https://devinhelton.com/principles-of-formalism Libertarian nutjob: all of them
Comment linking /principles-of-formalism
on “How many jobs really require college?”Submitted Do jobs that require college, really require college? as a story · 8 points
HN discussionI read that more as an allusion to public choice theory, but your interpretation of that paragraph is also plausible; conceded! It looks like this guy discusses the matter at greater length here, if anybody is curious: https://devinhelton.com/2015/08/dictatorship-and-democracy
Comment linking /2015/08/dictatorship-and-democracy
on “How many jobs really require college?”Submitted How to identify and quash “offense-bullying” as a story · 5 points
HN discussionThis person has a bunch of essays but he comes across as an sad person who doesn't believe in civil rights for women. In an eassy on his website [1], he says "Men have natural abilities and disposition towards leadership. To deny this, to mandate equality of results, to push women into masculine roles, to domesticate and feminize men, only results in misery for both men and women. Universal suffrage elections are vi…
Comment linking /principles-of-formalism
on “How many jobs really require college?”Submitted Do jobs that require college, require college? as a story · 4 points
HN discussionWe had walkable American cities for centuries. It was the norm. Kids played in alleys and walked to school, neighbors chatted over the back fence, we reaped the economic benefits of density and proximity. Then millions fled America's inner cities in the 1960s due to skyrocketing crime and racial violence. The suburbs were seen as an inferior substitute by many from the start; the upshot was that their kids would be…
Comment linking /why-urban-decay
on “Children Need Neighborhoods Where They Can Walk and Bike”Submitted The U.S. In Afghanistan: A Fractally Stupid War as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIn another article [1], the author writes that property ownership, "gives people the incentive to apply local knowledge and expertise in order to generate wealth." [1] https://devinhelton.com/principles-of-formalism
Comment linking /principles-of-formalism
on “Great Problems: An Epidemic of Rent-Seeking”Submitted Great Problems: The Economic Classes and Their Respective Plights as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSociologists have had a very large impact on policy in the last century. For example, the hundreds of billions spent on public housing was based on ideas that came out of sociology -- https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/dvPJvrleZI_wckWhjsRNPPRl4xU... It just didn't work. And a large body of sociological research touches on the idea of stigmatization, including of the poor and of racial minorities. Many school reforms i…
Comment linking /historical-amnesia.html
on “If Sociologists Had as Much Influence as Economists”Submitted Inequality, Bargaining Power, and Startups as a story · 1 points
HN discussionAre you really arguing that desegregation created these problems? Seems a bit backwards to me. I think it's incredibly obvious that race relation issues existed long before the desegregation of schools. Did you read my post? https://devinhelton.com/busing-in-boston I'm talking mostly about Boston, though I've found the same things when researching other northern cities. I'm not sure about the American south, I haven…
Comment linking /busing-in-boston
on “If the U.S. Won't Pay Its Teachers, China Will”Submitted Day Dreaming of a Living Wage Grand Compromise as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThe most moving and informed coverage of the US education system I've heard have all been through This American Life What makes you think it is the most informed coverage? These episodes only give you one side of the argument. If you want the other side try reading The Long Crusade and/or The Burden of Brown by Professor Raymond Wolters. I also myself wrote a long blog post about integration/desegregation as it happ…
Comment linking /busing-in-boston
on “If the U.S. Won't Pay Its Teachers, China Will”Let's remember what's being fought for: a democracy versus an autocracy based on raw power...replaced a democratic government that responded to its constituents with the rule of one man. Except that is an unbelievably naive way of looking at the world. Popular power is always limited, even in a "democracy", thanks to the Iron Law of Oligarchy. Most people are too busy living their own lives to understand how the lev…
Comment linking /2015/08/dictatorship-and-democracy
on “The Radicalization of Luke Skywalker: A Jedi’s Path to Jihad”" One of the solutions to classism is to have people mix more. Live together, school together, work together, marry together. " There are two problems with this. One, mixing people together often results in the two groups fighting over scarce resources (whether that be spots on the football team, dates to the prom, playing rights at the local basketball court, or well-paying union or government jobs). The battle for…
Comment linking /historical-amnesia.html
on “New data challenges the cultural consensus on public housing”I think my explanation was better than Mr. Yglesias's, if I do say so myself: https://devinhelton.com/2013/01/20/economic-classes/ Automation has increased productivity in many areas. But there are multiple factors of production: labor, natural resources, zoned residential land near jobs. Plus there are other limits to production, such as monopolies and regulation. So if just automation improves, production only inc…
Comment linking /2013/01/20/economic-classes/
on “The Automation Myth”Psychology is not a science in the same way that Newtonian physics is a science. The best way to understand human psychology is to have lots of life experience, to share experiences over beers with others, and to read good books that have the experiences of other people, past and present. My claim about the nature of anger fits the observations that I have made myself and observations that I have heard about second…
Comment linking /2015/04/02/offense-bullying-ii-the-burning-of-ferguson
on “The Rationality of Rage”I wrote a post about this phenomena myself - How to identify and quash 'offense-bullying' . I include some tips on how to deal with angry people - https://devinhelton.com/2015/03/23/standing-up-to-offense-bu... Really, this should be obvious to everyone. People get angry because their mind, consciously or subconsciously, detects that anger will be beneficial to them. Period. If you are oppressed, but are very weak,…
Comment linking /2015/03/23/standing-up-to-offense-bullying/
on “The Rationality of Rage”There is nothing wrong that needs to be fixed. Because the dollar is a fiat currency, and the national debt is denominated fully in a currency the government controls, the “debt” is not really debt. It is really equity, shares of stock in USG. A dollar is just a piece of paper backed by the United States Government. A US Treasury Bill (T-Bill) is just a piece of paper backed by USG. A T-Bill is simply a dollar with…
Comment linking /why-the-national-debt-is-non-problem
on “Best estimates are that American debt cannot be fixed with taxes on capital”From early 20th century until the 1970s people lived in very walkable neighborhoods and took the subways and street cars to work. Read this post of excerpts from a memoir of growing up in West Philadelphia circa 1968 -- https://devinhelton.com/lost-world-of-west-philadelphia Or better yet, read the book: https://www.amazon.com/Philly-War-Zone-Growing-Battleground-... Here is a small quote: Around this time of day, I…
Comment linking /lost-world-of-west-philadelphia
on “A Zoomer explains her generation's malaise to older generations”I don't see a flaw in MMT. This short but very clear article by Devin Helton helped me: "Why the National Debt is the Wrong Problem to Care About" http://devinhelton.com/why-the-national-debt-is-non-problem
Comment linking /why-the-national-debt-is-non-problem
on “Ask HN: Opinions on How Serious of a Problem the National Debt Is?”
