Weekly Digest: The Sunbelt Hits the Big Time
Welcome to my weekly digest for December 2, 2022.
For new subscribers, this contains a roundup of my recent writings and podcasts, as well as links to the best articles from around the web this week. You can control what emails you get from me by visiting your account page.
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Special Limited Time Offer on Membership
As part of my year end fundraising drive, I’m offering a special discount on Membership through the end of December.
My Member program is the community of my closet supporters. We have a private Slack channel where community members chat and build relationships. And we also do interactive Zoom sessions about twice a month where I’m able to be much more candid than I’m able to be in public writings.
Members get a behind the scenes look at what I’m up to, and what is coming down the road. For example, the Member community already knows about a book project I’m working on, and was able to help shape that with me.
Membership is normally $50/month, but through the end of the year only you can sign up for only $35/month. Membership includes all the benefits of being a Subscriber, so it’s really only $25/month if you’re upgrading. You can join the Member program at Patreon or Gumroad. (My accounts there are under the old newsletter name Masculinist).
You can also join annually on Substack for only $360/year (just $30/month).
I’m really looking forward to the online course and reading group we put together for the Member program next year called The Conditions of Modernity, which you don’t want to miss out on.
The Sunbelt Hits the Big Time
My latest public policy column in Governing magazine is an analysis of how the Sunbelt is no longer just a refuge for the middle class, but it coming a legitimate place to conduct elite business.
The best example is the Miami/South Florida area. The hedge fund giant Citadel, which was founded and based in Chicago and which maintained a large office in New York, announced recently that it was moving its headquarters to West Palm Beach, Fla. The notable New York hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. also moved its main office there. BlackRock is opening a West Palm Beach office, intended as a place for its senior executives to work. Several other major Wall Street firms have opened offices there as well, calling some locals to tout South Florida as “The Wall Street of the South.”
It's not just traditional finance. It’s also bigtime venture capital. And it’s not just West Palm Beach. Andreessen Horowitz is opening an office in Miami. The Founders Fund and Point72 Ventures have done the same. Miami has become a hot spot for cryptocurrency companies. All of this activity is drawing business services as well, including more corporate law firms.
Click through to read the whole thing.
Canadian Dystopia
This is an ad for an assisted suicide company in Canada. It could literally have come straight from a dystopian science fiction film.
Related: The New Yorker looks at how hospice in America became a for-profit hustle.
Best of the Web
If you haven’t done it yet, check out my list of great movies for men. This was put together in collaboration with Members and Subscribers. Now anyone you can suggest a movie to add as well. This is wide open to the public, so spread far and wide.
Please leave reviews on these movies to let people know what you think. If you review three of them, just email me and I’ll give you a 90 day free subscription here.
Speaking of movies, somebody put together a list of 31 positive cinematic role models.
After my recent podcast about the government promoting vice, someone sent me this John Piper column arguing that the lottery preys on the poor. And the New York Times recently wrote about how the city has become a free for all for weed.
WSJ: New Help for a Group at Risk for Suicide: Middle-Aged Men
Ryan Burge notes that there’s been a larger fertility decline among Democrats than Republicans. Given the huge Democratic skew among single women, this isn’t surprising.
Did you know that America has a higher percentage of single parent households than any country in the world?
Michael Toscano writes about the once and future marriage.
American Affairs: What is an elite today?
Yahoo: Target expected to lose $600 extra million this year due to organized theft - the low trust society in progress
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New Content and Media Mentions
More on the three worlds from Kevin DeYoung, First Things, Rod Dreher, and the Aquila Report.
Brad Littlejohn mentions me in his recent American Affairs piece on the persistence of conservative religion in American public life.
I was also mention with regards to a public transit project in Crain’s Chicago Business.
New this week:
The Conditions of Modernity - A reading list on key topics typically overlooked in understanding our world today: mass media, cultural change, industrialization, and more. While the course will be for Members only, the reading list is free here for anyone who wants to do it on their own.
The Fallout of Post-Familialism (paid only) - The rise of older adults living alone, Americans spending more time along, and the implications thereof.
My podcast this week is on asymmetric financial warfare. The rich and the big companies have more of an advantage over the middle class and the consumer than ever before. Paid subscribers can read the transcript.
You can subscribe to my podcast on Apple, Google, or YouTube.
