U.S. should sell ‘useless’ Montana to Canada for $1 trillion, says new petition

That's one way to reduce the national debt.

Change.org
  • The tongue-in-cheek petition, whose stated aim is to reduce the national debt, has been signed more than 8,600 times as of Tuesday.
  • Selling Montana, the fourth largest state in the country, would constitute the largest land deal since the Louisiana Purchase.
  • The national debt is often a source of concern for individuals, but the chances of the U.S. defaulting on its debts are relatively low — in part because the bulk of the national debt is owned by the American public.
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Billionaire warlords: Why the future is medieval

The world's next superpower might just resurrect the Middle Ages.

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  • Russia? China? No. The rising world superpower is the billionaire class. Our problem, says Sean McFate, is that we're still thinking in nation states.
  • Nation states have only existed for the last 300-400 years. Before that, wealthy groups – tribes, empires, aristocracies, etc – employed mercenaries to wage private wars.
  • As wealth inequality reaches combustion point, we could land back in the status quo ante of the Middle Ages. Who will our overlords be? Any or all of the 26 ultra-rich billionaires who own as much as the world's 3.8 billion poorest. What about Fortune 500, which is more powerful than most of the states in the world? Random billionaires, multinational corporations, and the extractive industry may buy armies and wage war on their own terms.
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What socialism is — according to Bernie Sanders

He's enflamed conversation about socialism across America.

Photo credit: Ethan Miller / Getty Images
  • U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has been calling himself a democratic socialist since the 1960s.
  • Bernie's use of the word "socialist" has attracted both love and ire from the left.
  • His definition of socialism is vague, but is the basis for many peoples' understanding of the concept.
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Alan Watts was overzealous in his basic income prediction – but he wasn't wrong

A guaranteed basic income is an old solution to a new problem of labor automation.

Image: Big Think
  • Economist Robert Theobald coined the team 'basic living guarantee' in the 1960s.
  • He believed that we were going to suffer problems because of an overabundance of resources.
  • Philosopher Alan Watts spoke about the possibility of an economic utopia through a universal basic income.
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What is socialism like in Scandinavia?

We keep hearing that Scandinavia has perfected socialism, but is that true?

JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images
  • The American left and right often point to Scandinavian countries as examples of what government regulation can do, for good and bad.
  • But are they actually socialists? How do their economies work?
  • While stealing their social structures and trying to implement them elsewhere probably won't work, they do offer an example of a kinder, gentler capitalism.
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