[14] Congress

Title Card

YouTube Link

Status

Researching

Transcription

Air Date

Dec 12, 2023

Target: 30-45 minutes

Script

Intro

<<dual screen, background visible>> Shift+1

ZFi: GM and welcome to Moloch Traps, our new podcast here at From Aa to Zzz. I’m ZFi, this Zombie Shepherd, and we’re excited to be bringing you this new show in collaboration with BanklessDAO and its Audio/Visual team. To be clear, opinions in this series expressed by either of us are our own opinions and do not reflect the opinions of BanklessDAO at large.

This week, we will continue to study and discuss excerpts from the "Meditations on Moloch" essay, written by Scott Alexander. The essay provides examples of multi-polar traps and delves into various instances from history, biology, and economics to illustrate how competition often results in collective harm.

In today’s episode we’ll discuss the concept of the Congress of the United States. Let’s start with Alexander’s words on this example.

Segment 2 — Congress

ZFi:

(reading from Meditations)

14. Congress. Only 9% of Americans like it, suggesting a lower approval rating than cockroaches, head lice, or traffic jams. However, 62% of people who know who their own Congressional representative is approve of them. In theory, it should be really hard to have a democratically elected body that maintains a 9% approval rating for more than one election cycle. In practice, every representative’s incentive is to appeal to his or her constituency while throwing the rest of the country under the bus – something at which they apparently succeed.

From a god’s-eye-view, every Congressperson ought to think only of the good of the nation. From within the system, you do what gets you elected.

Segment 3 —  Open Discussion

<<dual screen, full frame>> Shift+2

Zombie Shepherd notes:

ZFi notes:

Conclusion

<<dual screen with background visible>> Shift+1

Zombie Shepherd: (start and then hand off as appropriate)

Summary

What would YOU do? @listener?

Outro

Zombie Shepherd: 

Thanks for watching today’s episode of Moloch Traps. We hope you enjoy this series. As always, none of what we say is legal or financial advice, and we encourage listeners to do their own research in these areas before making any related decisions.

If you find our content informational, educational, or entertaining, and would like to support us, please collect these episodes on Lens. 18% of proceeds go back to BanklessDAO, 2% supports Lenstube for hosting our videos, and the rest helps to make From Aa to Zzz productions possible.

To stay on top of our weekly series, subscribe to us on the BanklessDAO YouTube. Don’t forget to like and comment while you’re there!

We’ll see you next time, frens!

Clickbait Titles and Descriptions

[14] Congress

Title Card

YouTube Link

Status

Researching

Transcription

Air Date

Dec 12, 2023

Target: 30-45 minutes

Script

Intro

<<dual screen, background visible>> Shift+1

ZFi: GM and welcome to Moloch Traps, our new podcast here at From Aa to Zzz. I’m ZFi, this Zombie Shepherd, and we’re excited to be bringing you this new show in collaboration with BanklessDAO and its Audio/Visual team. To be clear, opinions in this series expressed by either of us are our own opinions and do not reflect the opinions of BanklessDAO at large.

This week, we will continue to study and discuss excerpts from the "Meditations on Moloch" essay, written by Scott Alexander. The essay provides examples of multi-polar traps and delves into various instances from history, biology, and economics to illustrate how competition often results in collective harm.

In today’s episode we’ll discuss the concept of the Congress of the United States. Let’s start with Alexander’s words on this example.

Segment 2 — Congress

ZFi:

(reading from Meditations)

14. Congress. Only 9% of Americans like it, suggesting a lower approval rating than cockroaches, head lice, or traffic jams. However, 62% of people who know who their own Congressional representative is approve of them. In theory, it should be really hard to have a democratically elected body that maintains a 9% approval rating for more than one election cycle. In practice, every representative’s incentive is to appeal to his or her constituency while throwing the rest of the country under the bus – something at which they apparently succeed.

From a god’s-eye-view, every Congressperson ought to think only of the good of the nation. From within the system, you do what gets you elected.

Segment 3 —  Open Discussion

<<dual screen, full frame>> Shift+2

Zombie Shepherd notes:

ZFi notes:

Conclusion

<<dual screen with background visible>> Shift+1

Zombie Shepherd: (start and then hand off as appropriate)

Summary

What would YOU do? @listener?

Outro

Zombie Shepherd: 

Thanks for watching today’s episode of Moloch Traps. We hope you enjoy this series. As always, none of what we say is legal or financial advice, and we encourage listeners to do their own research in these areas before making any related decisions.

If you find our content informational, educational, or entertaining, and would like to support us, please collect these episodes on Lens. 18% of proceeds go back to BanklessDAO, 2% supports Lenstube for hosting our videos, and the rest helps to make From Aa to Zzz productions possible.

To stay on top of our weekly series, subscribe to us on the BanklessDAO YouTube. Don’t forget to like and comment while you’re there!

We’ll see you next time, frens!

Clickbait Titles and Descriptions