Chevan Nanayakkara 🗽

America is built on good faith: the commitment that when we disagree, we negotiate honestly. Everyone's interests deserve a seat at the table.

Enthusastically abandoning those processes to support whatever the authoritarian wants is unamerican.

Criticism is easy. Outrage is exhausting. Apathy is the rational default.

Building is the only thing that has ever worked when systems fail and people lose hope.

New essay: Be a Builder

Thank you!! But it’s all from you!

In 2025, I felt like the country died. American hope was never just a feeling. It was infrastructure: systems that made participation meaningful. Those systems have broken. This is my attempt to understand how, and what rebuilding requires.

They’re lovers (of economics) not fighters 😇

Venezuela isn't a debate- it's a diagnosis. We can't afford cooperation with China but can afford military force? 50 years of monetary mythology created this: strategic weakness abroad, neo-feudalism at home.

Defending Democratic Capitalism Through Capacity Stewardship Part 3 of Defending Democratic Capitalism For fifty years, you've been trapped in a false choice. The far right tells you collective action is theft. The far left tells you reform is betrayal. Both keep you passive while oligarchy consolidates power. This essay reveals what both extremes hide: you can preserve American values and expand middle class power through capacity stewardship—making evidence-based decisions about what markets provide versus what requires public provision, demanding institutional quality that enables informed stewardship, and managing the economic transitions needed to make democratic capitalism work for everyone. The core reframe: Government doesn't need money like households. It creates money when it spends, constrained by productive capacity and real resources—not budgets. Once you understand this, the question changes from "can we afford it?" to "do we have the capacity to build it, and which mechanism (markets or public provision) best serves this need?" But capacity stewardship requires institutional infrastructure: active Congress producing reports, investigative journalism exposing capture, universities generating valid knowledge, and science operating with integrity. The fifty-year assault didn't just spread money mythology—it systematically destroyed the institutional capacity citizens need to steward democratically. The path forward starts with conversation, not protest. Explaining how money actually works. Building understanding of your role as a capacity steward. Demanding quality from both markets and government. Expanding middle class power. The American middle class was deliberately engineered by political leadership in the 20th century. That leadership is gone, compromised by oligarchs. The mechanisms remain. The work now falls to citizens. Nobody is coming to save us.

For 50 years, both political extremes have kept you passive. The far right blocks collective action. The far left blocks reform. Both serve oligarchy. Part 3 reveals what they hide: you can preserve American values through capacity stewardship.

Not my revolution, I'm just the messenger! But seems like yours is well underway 😄

@umbrarchist.bsky.social I just came over here to drop you a note. My substack has been doing quite well. I cite the essay that we wrote together often - it's become a cornerstone of helping explain how economic mythology operates to constrain ordinary people while enabling extraction by elites. TY!

The New Deal, Scandinavian social democracy, the GI Bill: democratic reform works.

But far-left positions declaring all reform "collaboration" ensure nothing gets accomplished while concentrated wealth operates unopposed.

Taxation is theft" isn't philosophy. It's a corporate-funded weapon.

Far-right rhetoric attacks democratic capitalism by declaring all collective action "violent coercion."

Result: oligarchs operate without democratic accountability.

😆

I am at your service.

In 1946, NY Fed Chairman Beardsley Ruml said "taxes for revenue are obsolete." The federal government doesn't need tax revenue to spend. We spent 80 years forgetting what he told us. Time to remember.

Slightly different take: bsky.app/profile/chev...

How can we make economics a science? I developed a six-attribute framework and applied it to economics.The result: the discipline uses science without being a science: still teaching 16th-century concepts in the 21st century. Let's fix it.

Ha, hope so!

Designating Saudi Arabia a major non-NATO ally gives significant military benefits. Doing so moments after dismissing Khashoggi’s murder—and attacking the journalist and network who asked about it—shows how far Trump is willing to go to elevate those U.S. intelligence has tied to murder.

The Rich People Who Own the Media Want Generations to Fight, not Classes Yelling about generational inequality is a sure tell someone is a liar or clueless

People who yell about generational inequality are liars or fools. The problem is the super-rich, not your parents deanbaker22.substack.com/p/the-rich-p...

I just threw up a little. And cried a little. What happened to Trump voters?

It's about creating real opportunity, not just survival. Foundation + genuine choice = actual freedom. When basic security is guaranteed, people can take real risks and markets work better for everyone.

Full framework: chevan.info/opportunity-...

UBA is part of a larger policy framework I call "Opportunity Economics." Dignified subsistence guaranteed to all enables real choice. Compete in markets when you want, step back when you need to, pursue whatever path works for you.

Bottom line: UBA (housing, healthcare, education) + UBI (cash flexibility) > UBI alone. The latter on its own just feeds rent-seeking markets. The former builds capacity while the latter enables choice. We need both, but foundation comes first.

The OpenDemocracy piece makes good points about poorly-designed UBS (targeted = not universal) - what I'm calling UBA. I agree!

That's why my framework emphasizes actual universality: public housing available to all, Medicare for All, free public universities... not means-tested scraps.

The flexibility argument is valid. That's WHY I support UBI supplementing UBA. Once housing/healthcare/education are publicly provided, cash supplements become actual discretionary income, not just landlord subsidies. Foundation first, then flexibility works.

On rent capture: landlords adjust to known income floors over time, not instantly.

Evidence:

Section 8 vouchers → rents rise ~50% of voucher value over several years.

Student loans → tuition up 180% (real terms) across decades.

Universal pre-K → childcare prices up 8-15% over rollout period.

Thanks for engaging! I think we mostly agree. My essay explicitly says UBI could work on top of UBA. I'm not rejecting cash transfers, just warning they fail alone without addressing inelastic markets. UBA provides foundation, UBI provides flexibility. 🧵

Thanks! Both sound great, let's "get with the program" and get popular support for it!

Nice to hear from you and thanks for the repost!

UBI fails because landlords just raise rent to capture it. We need Universal Basic Assets: provide housing, healthcare, education directly as public goods. You can't price-gouge what's free at the point of service. Let's use our understanding of monetary reality for solutions
chevan.info/ubi-vs-uba/

Just now: The plaintiffs who were arguing that Utah GOP's congressional map is illegal won in court.

The judge orders one of the two maps submitted by the plaintiffs ('map 1') be used.

The ruling, if it stands, guarantees that Democrats will pick up a congressional seat in Utah next year.