I showed up and some other people were in the room :(
I'm finishing up packing but won't make it there until 2:15 or so.
Haha, well that dosage probably would probably cause weight loss.
All of the sources I can find give the density as exactly 4 oz = 1/2 cup, although maybe this is just an approximation that's infecting other data sources?
https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=density+of+butter+*+(1%2F2+cup)+in+ounces
But 1/2 cup of butter weighs 4 ounces according to every source I can find: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=density+of+butter+*+(1%2F2+cup)+in+ounces
Which means a 4 ounce stick of butter is 1/2 cup by volume.
It sounds like 1/2 cup of butter (8 tbps) weighs 4 oz, so shouldn't this actually work out so each of those sections actually is 1 tbsp in volume, and it's just a coincidence (or not) that the density of butter is 1 oz / 2 fl oz?
The problem is that lack of money isn't the reason there's not enough housing in places that people want to live. Zoning laws intentionally exclude poor people because rich people don't want to live near them. Allocating more money to the problem doesn't really help (see: the ridiculous amount of money California spends on affordable housing), and if you fixed the part where it's illegal, the government spending isn't necessary because real estate developers would build apartments without subsidies if they were allowed to.
Also, the most recent election shows that ordinary people really, really don't like inflation, so I don't think printing trillions of dollars for this purpose is actually more palatable.
You're right, I was taking the section saying "In this new system, the only incentive to do more and go further is to transcend the status quo in some way, and earn recognition for a unique contribution." too seriously. On a second re-read, it seems like your proposal is actually just to print money to give people food stamps and housing vouchers. I think the answer to why we don't do that is that we do that.
Food is essentially a solved problem in the United States, and the biggest problem with housing vouchers is that there physically isn't enough housing in some areas. Printing more money doesn't cause more housing to exist (it could change incentives, but incentives don't matter much when building housing for poor people is largely illegal).
I think you've re-invented Communism. The reason we don't implement it is that in practice it's much worse for everyone, including poor people.
I'm planning to donate $1000[1] but not until next year (for tax purposes). If there was a way that pledge that I would.
I'm committing to donating $1000 but it might end up being more when I actually think through all of the donations I plan to do next year.