Washed Out – Floating By

This video uses a fun collection of repeating animated clips, from 2D or taken from I bet keys off a greenscreen to tell us a story about daily life and the repetition therein.

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Directed by Drew Tyndell for Washed Out

Also, watch down the Mister Mellow Show here for an awkward time via Stones Throw.

Rutger Bregmen — On Taxes

Dutch historian and author Rutger Bregmen, gave a speech to attendees at Davos earlier this year, calling out the strange hypocrisy of the ultra-wealthy talking about their philanthropy and spending toward the ‘common good’ and in a systen where many of the problems the developed nations face are due to money being pulled out of the system by theses same People. Using tax-avoidance schemes, the rich effectively crippled the infrastructure and social safety nets designed to help society at large; a completely common practice for most corporations and the wealthy. They then spend their riches on philanthropic endeavors like museums etc… which are nice, sure. But funding the opera is maybe not as valuable as a strong free health-care system or robust infrastructure and mass transit to most people.

You can find his book, Utopia for Realists on this subject.

Yaniv Fridman, Creative Director in Mexico City, animated a short section of this speech.

Anand Giridharadas is another writer who has been speaking a lot on the same topic and has a book out discussing the issue, Winners Take All: The elite charade of changing the world. This is on the list to read, and every interview Ive seen with him is very fun and enlightening. He puts the blame squarely on tax avoidance as well for many of the worlds current problems.

Birth of the New American Aristocracy

Birth of the New American Aristocracy  by Matthew Stewart

You can even listen to the whole piece on Soundcloud

Matthew Stewart argues, 9.9% of the population comprises America’s new aristocracy, which often “takes wealth out of productive activities and invests it in walls.” But this group of people is rich in more than mere money, and its constancy poses an insidious threat to the promise of American democracy.