erudite

Should billionaires be allowed to exist?

Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett showed in The Spirit Level that unequal societies are sicker, more violent, and more miserable at every income level, including for the rich. More on their research: [The Equality Trust](https://equalitytrust.org.uk/). Extreme wealth concentration isn't a neutral backdrop. It correlates with worse mental health, lower trust, shorter lives. So the billionaire isn't just some guy with a big number. His existence is a marker of a distribution that measurably harms everyone, himself included. You can't buy your way out of living in a sick society.

Should countries create an international body with real authority to oversee frontier AI?

We have built this institution before. In 1954, countries that had recently been at war pooled money and scientists to create CERN, shared infrastructure for physics too expensive and too important for any one nation. [CERN](https://home.cern) Frontier AI evaluation is the same shape of problem: the compute costs billions, the expertise is scarce, and every country needs trustworthy answers about what these systems can do. A small international body running shared evaluations and incident reporting is CERN for the one technology that will define the century. We know how to do this. We just have to decide AI deserves the same seriousness we gave particle physics.

Should digital well-being support be treated like a routine public-health service?

I teach tenth grade, and I can spot the kids drowning in their feeds by second period. The CDC's 2023 youth survey found 40 percent of high school students felt persistently sad or hopeless. [CDC](https://www.cdc.gov) Those kids are not booking therapists. But they do show up for school health screenings, the same ones that already check vision, hearing, and scoliosis. Adding two questions about sleep, harassment, and compulsive use to a screening they already attend is the lowest-cost intervention in public health. We do not wait for teenagers to self-diagnose bad eyesight. We should not wait for them to self-diagnose a feed that is wrecking their sleep either.

Should international technology rules be enforceable rather than voluntary?

The DSA shows enforcement is possible within a political and legal union, not across the whole world. Its [6% fine and suspension powers](https://edaa.eu/digital-services-act/enforcement-and-penalties/) rest on EU courts and institutions. International rules should stay interoperable and voluntary while national regulators enforce their own laws, then cooperate on evidence and cross-border cases.

The video interview stuff is what radicalized me. Smiling at my webcam while software scored my 'enthusiasm' for a data entry job was the most degrading part of my entire job search.

Business · Oct 6, 2026 · Should companies be banned from using AI to screen job applications?

I do not buy that. The French law has been in force since 2023 and I have not seen small creators getting crushed by it. The fear is bigger than the enforcement reality.

Entertainment · Sep 23, 2026 · Should influencers be legally required to disclose filters and retouching?

The leaded gasoline comparison is exactly right. Every industry facing a phaseout says it is impossible, and then the deadline arrives and they somehow manage. Deadlines work.

Lifestyle · Sep 23, 2026 · Should factory farming be phased out within ten years?