The hottest Public Policy Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Education Topics

Dan Davies Demonstrates for Immigrants: He Returns Home Worried About How Hopelessness Powers Xenophobia

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 345 implied HN points • 30 Jan 26
🌍 World Politics Public Policy
  1. Hopelessness, not just cruelty, is powering much anti-immigrant sentiment: people often accept refugees' humanity but believe their society is too broken to help.
  2. Policy-makers tend to assume institutions can be improved, so they miss that many citizens have lost belief in agency; that gap makes people vulnerable to cynics and grifters.
  3. Real leadership rebuilds justified agency by solving visible, solvable problems in public rather than relying on speeches or messaging, giving people repeated reasons to regain optimism.

Sanctuary Cities Are Built on Shaky Law

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 505 implied HN points • 22 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. Sanctuary policies can conflict with federal law that forbids encouraging or inducing illegal immigration, and those actions could carry criminal or civil penalties.
  2. Some state and local officials who back sanctuary practices are facing Justice Department scrutiny and legal challenges that could lead courts to strike down those policies.
  3. Supporters argue sanctuaries only limit local cooperation with federal authorities, but federal statutes may impose broader duties on states and cities that make simple noncooperation legally vulnerable.

#30: A Plea for Silicon Valley to Enter Politics

Loeber on Substack • 651 implied HN points • 12 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. California is heading toward serious fiscal strain with big deficits and pension debts, which makes it likely politicians will try to extract more revenue from wealthy tech companies and individuals.
  2. If the state pursues heavy or punitive taxes and bad policy, highly mobile tech workers and firms will relocate, eroding the Bay Area ecosystem, shrinking tax revenue, and weakening America's AI advantage.
  3. The practical defense is for successful technologists to run for and win office at local, state, and federal levels so the industry has direct representation and can help shape smarter policy.

What I wrote in The Atlantic about the Clicktatorship

Can We Still Govern? • 314 implied HN points • 04 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. Governments are treating viral content as more important than factual accuracy, keeping misleading or false claims online because they generate attention.
  2. A social-media-first, 'poster brain' mindset combined with authoritarian tendencies rewards quick, sensational posts over careful truth-telling and fuels conspiracies and information bubbles.
  3. Prioritizing clicks and loyalty over expertise drives out professional civil servants and installs less qualified loyalists, weakening institutions and increasing incompetence and risk.

On Showing Up, and Meeting the Moment

Breaking the News • 5104 implied HN points • 07 Aug 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. Showing up is really important in both personal life and public issues. It means being present for moments that matter, even when life gets busy.
  2. We are facing a lot of challenges with institutions in our society right now. It's important to defend these institutions as they play a key role in our democracy.
  3. Taking action can range from supporting your community and standing up against unfair practices, to also finding time for yourself and enjoying life amidst the chaos.
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

Immigration: The Federal Solution

David Friedman’s Substack • 485 implied HN points • 25 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. Federalism offers a practical path: let states choose whether to enforce immigration so some states deport while others tolerate residents, which would show the real costs and benefits of each approach.
  2. Selective non‑enforcement is legally possible and already happens (think marijuana rules and DACA), so the choice to enforce widely is political rather than strictly legal.
  3. Years of de facto non‑enforcement created millions of integrated undocumented residents, so sudden strict enforcement disrupts ordinary families and strengthens the case for changing or repealing enforcement‑heavy laws.

Yes, Prime Minister, bathrooms do matter on planet Earth, despite saying that anyone who thinks so is “on another planet”.

A B’Old Woman • 739 implied HN points • 26 Jul 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. Some people believe that bathrooms are important and should be a topic in elections. Many feel uncomfortable about who can access these spaces.
  2. Once, women had more private spaces for themselves, but now there are concerns about safety with mixed-access policies.
  3. There are specific stories shared by individuals, like fathers worried about their daughters' safety in changing rooms, highlighting real-life impacts of these policies.

At least five interesting things: Build Something, Dammit! (#56)

Noahpinion • 17235 implied HN points • 30 Dec 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. There's a debate in progressive politics between focusing on delivering more goods and services for people versus fighting for control of the Democratic party's direction. Both sides have valid points, but it's important to prioritize tangible benefits for everyone.
  2. China's cyber espionage has grown alarmingly, with hackers accessing sensitive information from U.S. political figures. This raises concerns about privacy and national security, highlighting the need for stronger cybersecurity measures.
  3. Despite worries about disappearing good jobs, recent data shows that the landscape is changing. More high-skilled jobs in management and STEM are emerging, suggesting a positive shift in the job market.

a16z: The Power Brokers

Not Boring by Packy McCormick • 562 implied HN points • 09 Jan 26
đź’Ľ Business Public Policy
  1. a16z is built as a firm, not a traditional VC fund — it scales a huge platform of people and services (hiring, sales, marketing, policy and deep networks) to give startups power they couldn’t buy on their own.
  2. Their investment playbook is to find technical founders and category winners early, then double down — paying up and holding positions longer — to capture outsized outcomes.
  3. They’ve moved into a leadership role: shaping policy and building late-stage, public-company-like capabilities so companies can grow bigger in private, which can expand returns but also raises new risks as the firm scales.

At least five interesting things: Trump aftermath edition (#52)

Noahpinion • 20117 implied HN points • 13 Nov 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. Election narratives that blame racism or sexism might not explain how people voted in 2024. Many nonwhite voters shifted towards Trump, showing Democrats need to rethink their approach to win back support.
  2. Democrats could benefit from focusing on economic growth while also supporting social safety nets. They should prioritize public services and aim for a shared American identity to unite voters.
  3. Recent signs suggest that progress in AI might be slowing. A variety of factors, including data limitations and ongoing issues like 'hallucinations', point to a more uncertain future for AI development.

Links For January 2025

Astral Codex Ten • 15898 implied HN points • 17 Jan 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. Running for Congress can be really tough. You often spend a lot of your own money and have to pause your job for a long time.
  2. The debate around AI's progress is heating up. Some people worry that if AI makes a big breakthrough but not everything it was supposed to, it could lead to misunderstandings about its true capabilities.
  3. There's a new dating site idea that matches people based on their chats with an AI helper. It's still in the early stages, but it's an interesting concept.

Talking Banfield

Bet On It • 125 implied HN points • 19 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. Long-run poverty is often blamed on irresponsible behavior—especially strong present bias or high time preference—so many solutions focus on getting people to behave more responsibly or changing incentives.
  2. Scholars dispute the key psychological root: some single out time preference, while others prefer a broader concept like impulsivity or low conscientiousness as the main behavioral cause.
  3. There's a sharp divide over tractability: one view sees poverty as entrenched and hard to fix, while another believes tougher incentives and policies can gradually make irresponsible behavior more responsible.

Goodbye to Joe Biden, and Whoever Was President the Last Four Years

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 15182 implied HN points • 18 Jan 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. Biden gave a farewell speech that expressed concerns about an 'oligarchy' forming in America. He mentioned how tech companies could threaten democracy.
  2. Many people feel Biden’s presidency was mostly about him being a public figure rather than an effective leader. There seemed to be a powerful force behind the presidency itself, separate from him.
  3. Biden highlighted a growing disconnect between the president as a person and the presidency as an institution during his term. This indicates a complex understanding of leadership in America.

Proof of Systemic Racism in America

Erik Examines • 761 implied HN points • 01 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. Multiple real-world and controlled studies show racial bias at every stage of the criminal system — from traffic stops and police shootings to searches, arrests, jury selection, and sentencing.
  2. Implicit stereotypes and dehumanizing views of Black people, including seeing Black children as older or less innocent, increase use of force and lead to harsher treatment.
  3. These biases cause concrete harms — higher arrest and incarceration rates, longer sentences, worse medical care, and reduced job opportunities — which reinforce racial inequality.

Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 4

Bet On It • 70 implied HN points • 27 Feb 26
đź“– Philosophy Public Policy
  1. Government is the root cause of many social problems because it directly controls or monopolizes the institutions involved.
  2. When the state supplies services or owns resources—like streets, police, courts, and the air—it tends to perform poorly and fail to protect property rights, producing issues like crime and pollution.
  3. Listing problems and blaming government without laying out the underlying theory is unconvincing, especially because it overlooks the economic successes that markets have produced, making the critique seem one-sided.

The Incredibility of Credibility

Bet On It • 322 implied HN points • 29 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. People and politicians often reject bold policy reforms not because credible commitments are impossible, but because they emotionally dislike the reforms; they'd rather avoid humiliating or unpopular steps than implement effective but distasteful changes.
  2. Radical changes usually demand loud public promises, cultural shifts, or rules that feel unfair (for example to immigrants or seniors), so leaders expect voter backlash and won’t pursue them even when they might work.
  3. Credibility and institutional fixes matter mainly for technical, low-salience issues (like central bank policy); for high-emotion, “juicy” issues feelings and politics, not clever commitments, decide outcomes.

The Christchurch City Council NZ opens up another women’s swim session to men if they say they’re women, but bar them if they don’t.

A B’Old Woman • 759 implied HN points • 20 Jul 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. The Christchurch City Council allows men who identify as women to join women-only swim sessions but does not allow men who don't identify as such. This raises questions about fairness and discrimination.
  2. There is concern that the Council's policy might violate rights under New Zealand law since it doesn't clearly separate sessions based on sex.
  3. Many people are starting to push back against policies that seem to blur lines between men and women, showing a growing demand for clarity and fairness in these spaces.

On "Internews"

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 13541 implied HN points • 08 Feb 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. USAID has secretly funded a group called Internews Network with nearly half a billion dollars. This money has helped create a lot of media outreach and training for journalists.
  2. Internews Network has worked with thousands of media outlets and has produced many broadcasts that have reached millions of people.
  3. There are concerns about Internews supporting social media censorship, which raises questions about freedom of speech and information.

What to expect from this week's U.S. vaccine meeting

Your Local Epidemiologist • 1372 implied HN points • 03 Dec 25
🏥 Health Politics Public Policy
  1. The U.S. vaccine meeting will focus on the Hepatitis B vaccine and the childhood immunization schedule. The only vote will be about maintaining the birth dose of the Hepatitis B vaccine for infants.
  2. Many misleading claims about vaccines might arise during the meeting, but there's a lot of solid evidence supporting the current vaccination schedule's safety and effectiveness. Knowing the facts can help people respond to misinformation.
  3. It's important to understand how the vaccine schedule was created and why children receive vaccines at specific times. This schedule helps protect children from serious infections when they are most vulnerable.

Does AI make you stupid?

Odds and Ends of History • 268 implied HN points • 09 Feb 26
đź•ą Technology Public Policy
  1. A new study doubts that AI will deliver a big, immediate productivity boost, so the economic gains from AI may be smaller or slower than many expect.
  2. A small tweak to how government calculates value for money could hugely shift which infrastructure projects get approved, making things like northern railways look more or less viable.
  3. Experts argue public services need reform for the age of AI, offering practical ideas for how governments can use AI to improve services while managing risks.

My Post on *Furious Minds*

In My Tribe • 501 implied HN points • 06 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. The new right breaks into three distinct strands: postliberals who reject neoliberal economics, Claremonters who use catastrophist urgency to justify political action, and national conservatives who focus on opposing international progressive elites and winning elections.
  2. Right‑leaning intellectuals are concentrated in a few institutions, so the movement often appears as a small, tightly networked circle rather than a broad, dispersed intellectual community.
  3. A heavy, academic left‑leaning critique and dense political philosophy can turn readers off; many prefer market‑oriented libertarian or mainstream conservative voices to academic polemics.

"Paycheck-to-paycheck" and five other popular myths

Noahpinion • 17000 implied HN points • 02 Dec 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. Many popular economic claims, like '60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck,' are often incorrect and based on unreliable sources.
  2. Surveys from trusted government institutions show that a majority of people actually have enough savings to cover three months of expenses, contradicting the paycheck-to-paycheck myth.
  3. There are many other myths about exercise, education, immigration, and spending that are widely accepted but lack proper evidence, showing that misinformation can spread even in an information-rich society.

The New York Fed's New Involuntary Commitment Paper is Methodologically Shaky as Well as Irresponsible

Freddie deBoer • 4610 implied HN points • 30 Jul 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. The study from the New York Fed raises questions about how involuntary hospitalization affects people with mental health issues. It suggests that forcing treatment might lead to worse outcomes, but its methods are flawed.
  2. There are serious concerns about how the study groups were chosen. Many participants were not similarly matched in terms of their mental health, which could affect the results and make the conclusions unreliable.
  3. It's important to be cautious when interpreting the findings. The study only focuses on a specific group of patients and shouldn’t be taken as proof against involuntary treatment for all people with mental illness.

All the Little Unborn Babies

Freddie deBoer • 17141 implied HN points • 18 Nov 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. IVF involves many ups and downs, including the high likelihood of miscarriages, which can lead to a lot of anxiety for parents. The process makes individuals very aware of the fragility of early pregnancy.
  2. Miscarriage is common and often goes unnoticed, but it is a significant loss for would-be parents. Many people feel guilt or blame themselves even though it's often just part of nature.
  3. Understanding the realities of pregnancy and loss can change perspectives on abortion. The chaos of nature shows that life doesn't always happen the way we plan or want it to.

BIG NEWS: We're Working on "Moneyball" for Politics

OpenTheBooks Substack • 199 implied HN points • 07 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. A new platform will combine a huge private government spending database with AI-indexed public officials’ remarks so people can compare what politicians say with what they do and spend.
  2. The tool uses pattern recognition and prediction to spot areas prone to waste, fraud, and abuse, aiming to help prevent scandals in real time.
  3. The project relies on massive scale—about 10 billion data points from OpenTheBooks—giving journalists, policymakers, and citizens unprecedented transparency and accountability tools.

Highlights From The Comments On Prison

Astral Codex Ten • 15485 implied HN points • 10 Dec 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. Many criminals act without thinking of long-term consequences. They might believe they'd get away with risky behavior, such as driving drunk, which can lead to serious problems later on.
  2. Prison can sometimes offer a break from harmful lifestyles, especially for those already struggling with addiction or crime. It might not disrupt a stable life, since some people had a challenging life full of problems even before incarceration.
  3. The effectiveness of longer prison sentences as a deterrent is questionable. Many criminals don't pay attention to the details of potential punishments, but are more influenced by the chance of getting caught while committing a crime.

Do We Want High Home Prices?

MD&A • 138 implied HN points • 15 Feb 26
đź’° Finance Public Policy
  1. Don't reason from a price change: the same price move can mean very different things depending on whether supply or demand shifted. For example, lower prices from more supply help consumers, but lower prices from a recession hurt them.
  2. High housing prices can be good or bad depending on the cause: when they come from supply restrictions like zoning and fees they mostly hurt renters and lock people out, but when they come from higher wages and growth they reflect higher living standards. Developers will build more if prices rise for the right reasons, but supply limits break that feedback and create persistent unaffordability.
  3. Owning a home only partly hedges future housing costs, so paper gains from house-price inflation often offset higher lifetime housing liabilities; amenities raise prices because they're scarce, not because higher prices make them better. Increasing housing supply lets people enjoy amenities without forcing others out.

Sall Grover gets cancelled in New Zealand, as entirely expected.

A B’Old Woman • 1059 implied HN points • 26 Jun 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. Sall Grover's speaking event in New Zealand was canceled by a taxpayer-funded venue. This shows how some organizations can be influenced by public opinion.
  2. The Women's Rights Party is looking for alternate venues for the event and has a backup plan in place. They believe in standing up for free speech.
  3. Complaints were made against the event, but it's unclear how many were legitimate. It raises questions about how venues handle bookings based on public sentiment.

Gaslit Nation

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 13645 implied HN points • 04 Jan 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. Many people are frustrated with confusing news and feel like they're being manipulated by those in power. It seems authorities are not being honest with the public.
  2. The term 'Gaslit Nation' suggests that citizens feel deceived and misled about important issues. Trust between the public and officials is eroding.
  3. There's a sense that sensational stories are distracting people from real problems. People want clearer communication from their leaders and more transparency.

CROSSPOST: SARAH JEONG: It doesn’t matter if Alex Pretti had a gun

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 284 implied HN points • 26 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. Public debate gets diverted to whether victims "deserved" their fate (did they have a gun, did they provoke it) instead of asking if law enforcement followed the law and used proportionate force.
  2. Federal agencies like ICE, CBP, and Border Patrol often escalate situations and use excessive or unlawful force, operating with little accountability and increasing public fear and protest.
  3. Civilians are held to stricter standards of restraint while armed, salaried agents face fewer consequences, and that double standard erodes rule of law and meaningful police accountability.

Yes, Affirmative Action Justifies Discrimination

Cremieux Recueil • 893 implied HN points • 18 Dec 25
🚌 Education Public Policy
  1. Affirmative action often results in beneficiaries being, on average, less qualified by standard ability measures than those selected without preference, which creates measurable performance gaps.
  2. Because those gaps devalue the credentials of favored groups, it can be rational for employers or consumers to avoid or discriminate against beneficiaries to protect quality.
  3. These effects misallocate talent, strengthen credentialism, and lack solid evidence of compensating benefits, making affirmative action both practically harmful and morally questionable.

SimParkingLot is no fun

Urben Field Notes • 448 implied HN points • 12 Jan 26
🪑 Design Public Policy
  1. American parking rules have produced an enormous supply of parking—about two billion spaces—and that land use eats up more area than entire states.
  2. Parking minimums are often arbitrary, copied from other places, or set for rare peak days, which leads cities to require far more parking than is actually needed and shapes what developments are possible.
  3. The net effect is a car‑centered, asphalt‑dominated built environment where buildings are surrounded by parking, making walkable, lively neighborhoods difficult to create.

immigration enforcement: why this time is different

bad cattitude • 288 implied HN points • 21 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. Immigration enforcement was long treated as a mainstream, bipartisan policy that many politicians and media outlets supported, but those same actors now often condemn similar tactics.
  2. A large, allegedly corrupt system is said to have used immigration to swell voter rolls, enrich cronies, and capture institutions like courts, prosecutors, media, and local governments to hide fraud and sustain power.
  3. Recent shifts in media and politics have begun to expose this system, prompting fierce resistance from entrenched actors, but growing accountability could lead to consequences and institutional rebuilding.

University Civics Centers: what is the point?

In My Tribe • 258 implied HN points • 22 Jan 26
🚌 Education Public Policy
  1. State-funded civics centers are being created to teach citizenship and foundational texts, but their purpose is unclear: are they meant to reform universities or to educate citizens for self-government?
  2. Nonviolent, disciplined protest and reliance on courts are presented as more effective and constructive ways to protect rights and persuade the public, while violent direct action risks turning movements into public-order problems.
  3. Many civics centers are bureaucratic and face trade-offs with other priorities; focused events like teach-ins could be valuable, but students are overextended and institutions need to consolidate and prioritize initiatives.

Now that men have been given control of female spaces in New Zealand, what do we do from here?

A B’Old Woman • 1119 implied HN points • 14 Jun 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. Women and girls in New Zealand are feeling unsafe because they might have to share their spaces with men who identify as women. This makes many women uncomfortable and worried about their privacy.
  2. There are concerns about unisex toilets, as they may not be safe or clean for everyone. Some people believe that having clear male and female spaces could help reduce risks.
  3. A new group called Inflection Point is working to raise awareness about these issues and bring people together to fight against gender ideology, even if they have different beliefs.

NIMBYs vs Bristol Zoo

Odds and Ends of History • 335 implied HN points • 26 Jan 26
🎙 Podcasts Public Policy
  1. Local NIMBY disputes, like the fight over Bristol Zoo, show how community opposition can strongly shape, delay, or block development and often plays out in parish council meetings.
  2. Proposals to reform the Civil Service focus on speeding up decision-making and improving delivery so government can move faster and fix things more effectively.
  3. Policymakers and economists are pushing bold, large-scale ideas—like building an enormous electricity cable linking Texas and the UK—to rethink how we solve big energy and infrastructure problems.

The Bell Finally Tolls for the FBI

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 13359 implied HN points • 02 Dec 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. Kash Patel's nomination raises concerns about the FBI's future and suggests an intention to overhaul its leadership. Many believe Trump needs to take decisive action against the FBI after years of perceived misconduct.
  2. The article criticizes mainstream media, particularly CNN, for their coverage of the Nunes memo and claims they misrepresented facts. It argues that the media's failures blurred the lines between journalism and political agendas.
  3. The discussion emphasizes the importance of accountability in institutions like the FBI and the media. It suggests that changes in leadership could be a necessary step towards restoring public trust.

Michael Dell: Why I’m Giving $6 Billion to America’s Kids

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 945 implied HN points • 03 Dec 25
đź’° Finance Public Policy
  1. Early hands-on experiences with saving, investing, and small businesses taught the power of compound interest and shaped the belief that opportunity is something you build.
  2. A $6.25 billion commitment will support a plan to have $1,000 deposited into an investment account for every child born in the United States, starting next year.
  3. Those tax-advantaged accounts can grow over time with family or public contributions and can be used at 18 for education, job training, a first home, or other long-term financial goals to give every child a stake.

Understanding Mamdani's Vision

Can We Still Govern? • 511 implied HN points • 02 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Public Policy
  1. He lays out an unapologetically left-wing, pro–big-government vision that rejects neoliberalism and promises City Hall will govern expansively and audaciously to restore public trust.
  2. His policy agenda is framed as expanding real freedom rather than just fixing pocketbook problems, with proposals like rent freezes and free childcare and a heavy focus on actually delivering results through strong implementation.
  3. He centers collective citizenship and the city’s diversity, calling for solidarity among residents and asking people to stay engaged and demand excellence from both public servants and themselves.

Fertility Goes Up When Men Win

Cremieux Recueil • 694 implied HN points • 21 Dec 25
🏥 Health Politics Public Policy
  1. When men gain income or individually controlled money, households tend to have more children, while when women get the same transfers, completed fertility often falls—likely because shifts in who controls resources change household bargaining.
  2. This male-bias effect appears across many settings—reparations, lottery wins, resource booms, and sex-ratio shifts—and seems driven by higher male marriage rates and greater marital stability when men’s prospects improve.
  3. For fertility policy, that means who receives support matters: boosting men’s economic prospects or using child-contingent designs can raise births, but explicitly favoring men is politically unacceptable, so policies must instead shape incentives and bargaining in neutral, fair ways.