Jonathan Church, CFA

areomagazine.com/2021/01/13/p...

Four Reasons Why We Should Not Have Billionaires After Zohran Mamdani's comments on Billionaires spark opposition, Jonathan Church lays out four key arguments as to why they should not exist.

www.sublationmag.com/post/four-re...

There's something almost wholesome about those numbers. A throwback to a time when people genuinely thought government worked for citizens in good faith...

The problem with meritocracy is the very concept of merit itself. It's not that the rich are not meritorious, even if that is true, but that merit itself as an organizing principle of society is fundamentally flawed.

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."

George Orwell, 1984

Opinion | Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Unhappiness

America ranking 32nd in overall quality of life has to sting because of how utterly unnecessary it is

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/o...

My new piece for @currentaffairs.bsky.social

Few contemporary books illuminate the malaise of inequality more than The Meritocracy Trap & The Tyranny of Merit.

The meritocratic society has become a dystopia

Why Fascists Always Come for the Socialists First Contrary to right-wing myths that the "Nazis were socialist," fascists despise socialism and want to destroy it. Here's why the left poses such a threat to them.

www.currentaffairs.org/news/why-fas...

Reflecting on Tragedy: From Brown University to Bondi Beach Senior editor Jonathan Church, writing in the wake of horrific shootings in Rhode Island and Australia, reflects on the death of his own mother, wringing meaning from tragedy, and what it is to live i...

www.merionwest.com/reflecting-o...

"Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now"

Bob Dylan, My Back Pages

Have we considered that maybe a credentialing obsessed, hyper-competitive meritocratic pedagogy was the real monster all along?

In the richest city in the richest country on the planet, the thing we can’t afford is to forget those who are left hungry.

The Cyber Barrons are the Robber Barons of our time.

We need more antitrust enforcement, not less, to break up their digital monopolies.

It is necessary to counter their obscene wealth, power and influence in our democracy.

My piece on meritocracy for @liberalcurrents.com

‘It’s PR, not the ER’: Gen Z is resisting the workplace emergency In an evolving workforce, Gen Z is rejecting a frenetic, stress-inducing approach to work that crosses work-life balance boundaries and leads to burnout.

👍👊👏

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Libertarianism in a nutshell: what's mine is mine, what's yours could be mine.

I love that Robert Redford did not want a public funeral, a theater of applause and tribute. Just another sign that he was a great man.

Charisma has always struck me as a red flag in a person. It is almost like a personality flaw that I am inclined to distrust.

Americans give capitalism its lowest ever rating in new Gallup survey A slim majority of Americans rate capitalism positively.

www.axios.com/2025/09/08/a...

"Anyone who believes that exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist."

Kenneth Boulding

David Foster Wallace on Importance of Quiet YouTube video by Daily Philosopher

www.youtube.com/shorts/OOypC...

Now Ophelia
She's 'neath the window
For her I feel so afraid
On her twenty-second birthday
She already is an old maid
To her death
Is quite romantic
She wears an iron vest
Her profession's her religion
Her sin is her lifelessness

Bob Dylan, Desolation Row

"The web of our lives is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together; our virtues would be proud, if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues."

Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well

Scientists have been studying remote work for four years and have reached a very clear conclusion: “Working from home makes us happier.” - iStudiez Pro Scientists have been studying remote work for four years and have reached a very clear conclusion: “Working from home makes us happier.”

istudentpro.com/scientists-h...

"Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty."

Hannah Arendt

Depressing thing about the whole "debate me bro" phenomena is its basically the opposite of a Socratic argument. Everyone comes in convinced they have the truth in hand and the goal is to retrench the doxa of the already convinced as firmly as possible.

I appreciate it, and thank you for being open-minded enough to read/listen. I strive to be open-minded but it is certainly hard to do, and I venture to say it is hard for most people, especially on social media. This is one of several reasons I don't spend much time on social media.

The radical belief that it’s okay for a website to prioritize quality over size, maybe even good.