The Ratchet Effect | Words & Numbers | Ep 524
Ant and James dissect the constant involvement of government in “emergencies,” which seem to happen once a decade. For some reason.
0:00 Introduction and Episode Preview
0:50 The Ig Nobel Prize: Are Rich People More Selfish?
5:13 Rising Oil Prices and the Real Cost of Policy Decisions
7:20 Trump’s $5,000 Checks and the Inflation Problem
10:22 The Lindsay Clancy Trial and a Bizarre Jury Split
12:22 Foolishness of the Week: A Five-Year-Old, a Pond, and CPS
15:32 Foolishness of the Week: Punished for Stopping a Mass Shooter
18:17 The Affordability Crisis and Government Intervention
19:58 The Ratchet Effect: Why Government Power Never Shrinks
21:15 From the Great Depression to COVID: A Century of Expanding Government
24:14 The 2030s: Social Security and the Coming Wealth Tax
25:50 The 2040s: The Debt Crisis and a Digital Dollar
32:27 The 2050s: Population Decline and Universal Basic Income
34:11 How Temporary Government Powers Become Permanent
35:27 Socialism, the Berlin Wall, and North vs. South Korea
40:11 Social Security Insolvency and America’s Growing Debt
42:11 Property Taxes, Ownership, and the Erosion of Economic Freedom
47:01 How Young People Can Prepare for Social Security’s Future
50:21 Retirement Savings and the Coming AI Bubble
54:32 AI Regulation, Government Protection, and the Ratchet Effect
Subscribe to Words & Numbers on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Substack, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.
