The review explores Jane Jacobs' economic theories from two of her books, focusing on the importance of cities in economic development and challenging conventional wisdom on separatism and large political entities.

Scott Alexander defends his criticism of the GOP tax bill, arguing that even if taxes should be lowered, there are more effective ways to cut taxes that would directly benefit the poor and middle class.

Scott Alexander explores social impact bonds as a potential way to use corporate greed to solve social problems more efficiently than current government programs.

Scott Alexander advocates for a political philosophy combining free markets with social welfare, proposing market-based alternatives to current welfare programs and regulations.

Scott Alexander argues that ancient Rome's welfare system was similar to modern progressive policies in causes and outcomes, despite different philosophical justifications.

Scott Alexander critiques a plan to cure youth unemployment by abolishing minimum wage, arguing that unemployment might be preferable to miserable employment at extremely low wages.

Scott proposes that class-based attitudes toward wealth redistribution are driven by status signaling rather than "last place aversion," where lower middle class people oppose redistribution to differentiate themselves from the poor, while upper middle class people support it to differentiate themselves from the lower middle class.