Good God

Yeah

Oftentimes people just want new features. We briefly had an 16 year old car and there was no practical way to even play music from our phones

Granted it's a 5 year old TV, but still. It's ridiculous

I like you Senator Whitehouse, but unless you want to join your colleagues in getting primaried, you should probably change your tune and stop defending them

Yeah, I'm familiar with the graph. It's always bugged me that, even with this version, they don't adjust for inflation, and instead include inflation as a separate line.

It shouldn't be shocking to anyone that the things that top the chart here are (almost) all labor intensive services, because those don't see much efficiency gain over time. The only one you could realistically bring back to earth with policy are textbooks.

Inflation over this period was a cumulative 92%. Median household income increased by 16%. So everything below approximately 125% on this chart is the same price or cheaper in real terms as a percent of income for the median household. (If you use per capita GDP instead, that 16% becomes like 70%.)

Basically highly localized fiscal stimulus at that point.

In other words, the bargain is this: "We are going to rewrite the constitution. Do you want something resembling a Second Amendment in there? Then help us avoid packing the senate by joining in the process."

We would likely see a similar outcome. Actually packing the senate might damage democratic legitimacy, so it's better if we get the Republicans to vote on our side. Credibly threatening them with the nuclear option, thereby cutting them out of the reform process, can bring them to the table.

The solution ended up being to basically pack the House of Lords. The king -- who was sympathetic to the liberals -- threatened to hand out hundreds of peerages to liberals to pack House of Lords. Rather than deal with this indignity, they voted to neuter themselves.

There is historical precedent in other countries for exactly this sort of thing. The most direct example is the Parliament Act of 1911 in the UK. They faced a similar problem to us -- a recalcitrant upper house that had become a roadblock to reform.

People shy away from ideas like this because they assume that the Republicans would literally revolt (they won't) or that it's somehow illegitimate.

It is perfectly within the law as the constitution is written. The fact that it's extraordinary does not mean it will be viewed as illegitimate.

Something happen?