Scott Miller

We’ll discuss the social media giants’ impact on American society—the quality of discourse, data security, privacy and other related topics.

• Should social media platforms be subject to legal liability as “publishers” responsible for curating their content?
  
• Has social media “dumbed down” our citizens?
  
• Should user agreements for free services (like pretty much all social media, plus Gmail, etc.) be revised to make it clearer why this stuff is “free?” How should they be changed?

Here’s a WaPo article on “browser extensions” to get you started.

And a NYT op-ed piece on how the recent FaceApp affair isn’t really an outlier.

We’ll revisit “affordable housing” and, more generally, the intersection of government regulation (zoning laws) and the optimal housing configuration in a climate-change environment—these may be in conflict.

If you’re looking to get out of the shade, here are three pieces (two opinions, one “article”) from the NY Times and the Washington Post:

• A new approach on housing affordability (NYT Editorial Board)
• Only Washington can solve the nation’s housing crisis (NYT)
• Tech start-ups look to disrupt the affordable housing industry (WashPost)

Last week, the official topic was about the appropriate extent of “government” in our society (focusing on the U.S.). We spent some time on the subject, but there’s a lot more to discuss.

So, this week, we’ll continue the topic, exploring where the line should be drawn between “government services” and (as libertarians might put it) the freedom to succeed—or to fail.

To help get us (re-)started, here’s a recent Washington Post op-ed from Charles Lane, entitled: “Democrats point to Nordic nations as models of socialism. Here’s how they actually work. (2 pages)”

Lane’s commentary appears to be founded, in part, on a report by Michael Cembalest, head of JP Morgan Asset Management (with ~$2.0 trillion under management), entitled “Lost in Space: The Search for Democratic Socialism in the Real World… (11 pages)”

I offer double the speaking time to everyone who reads both pieces (should only take 10 minutes)!