the $68 white baby tee economy
ALSO: the discourse around lonliness influencers, BigTech's big electoral Ls, hedging a Knicks watch party bar tab on Kalshi, and more
Happy Friday, June 5th!
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This video from Plain Jane New York, a shop that sells white t-shirts made in Detroit, recently slid across my feed:
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I liked the video, don’t get me wrong… but when I clicked on their product link, I had a fairly good idea of what I was going to see, and I was right: these shirts retail for $68 each.
Luckily, the comment section is mostly good vibes (if you know me, you know I am engaged in a personal crusade to try to make comments section slighly less horrible). However, the one I was expecting did pop up first:
For me, this exchange highlighted something I’ve been ruminating on a lot lately. The absolute majority of Democratic messaging – and most messaging these days – is in the economic populism vein. People in this country need good-paying jobs and strong unions that advocate for them.
And that likely means… buying things that are made here in this country. Which necessarily means paying a whole lot more for those things. The days of the strong middle class that we often idealize – where one parent’s factory job could support an entire household – were also days when people generally had far less access to many consumer goods.
So, truly, what do we do about that? Trump has already started giving his characteristically horrible messaging on it – which, surprise surprise, does not seem to be popular.
I think we need to take seriously that we live in a country where buying “little treats” has become a legitimate coping mechanism – and not necessarily a “bad” or unexpected one. Are we not built to gather? But, to me, given the tangled web of globalism and off-shoring, it does raise some serious dissonance about what rebuilding the American economy and middle class could feasibly, actually look like.
And I’m curious – what and how do you think about this?
Trump officials planned to mark 2.7 million living people as dead, whistleblower claims
The Trump administration had plans to classify 2.7 million living people — including some U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents — as dead as part of its immigration enforcement efforts, according to a former senior Social Security executive. (WaPo, 6/5 – free version)
Tech ‘got spanked’ in this week’s primaries. It could be a preview of more to come.
The anti-tech mood is rising across the U.S., with the California results just the latest demonstration of populist opposition. Voters are angry about water and energy-hungry data centers in their communities, and parents are concerned that chatbots are harming their children. Tech is poised to suffer more electoral defeats this summer in New York, Florida and elsewhere, where detractors challenging the industry are frontrunners in their upcoming primaries. (POLITICO, 6/4)
Amazon’s search bar will invent AI-generated products you can’t buy
Amazon’s updated search bar will now show you AI-generated images of products as you describe them. For now, the in-app feature only surfaces AI images of clothing and home goods, allowing you to tap on the image that best matches what you’re looking for and search for similar-looking items. (The Verge, 6/3 – free version)
Jeff Bezos Is Funding a Wild Hunt for the Brain’s ‘Core Algorithm’
The goal, Reardon tells me, is to build “a synthetic artificial intelligence brain that runs on 50 watts or less.” It should adapt to its conditions, be as nimble as a human mind, and burn a tiny fraction of an LLM’s compute power and energy. The proof of concept is thriving inside our skulls. (WIRED, 6/4 – free version)
The Loneliness Influencers
Since this trend is playing out on TikTok and Reels, it’s natural to wonder whether the isolation on display is hyperbolized in order to draw clicks and generate revenue. The concept itself feels somewhat disingenuous: How introverted can a person be while also making public-facing content about their private lives? The legitimacy of one loneliness influencer, Paulina Cee, was recently the focus of a thread on r/NYCInfluencerSnark, where someone posted “Paulina Cee can’t be real, can she? It all just looks so fake.” Commenters accused Cee of copying Isa, of being AI, and of secretly being a marketing account made to promote infrared yoga mats. (The Cut, 6/2 – free version)
Hedging a $15,000 New York Knicks bar tab on Kalshi
After a similar promo during the Eastern Conference finals cost him $3,700 in free drinks, Kalshi reached out to suggest that he hedge his risk. Freedman said he’d dabbled in prediction markets as “emotional hedges” when his alma mater, the University of Michigan, played Ohio State, but this was his first foray into financial hedging. (Semafor, 6/2)
Teens hit summer break with nowhere left to go
Teens seeking to socialize together in public this summer are discovering that their presence is often treated as a problem. The decline of malls, cheap hangout spots and welcoming public spaces has left teenagers with few places to gather without money or access to a car, urban designers and youth researchers say. (Axios, 6/5)
Sleep scientists just calculated how much shut-eye you really need as you age—and it’s not 8 hours
And while doctors have traditionally equated getting eight hours with a good night’s rest, new research suggests something different. A new sleep study, published in the journal Nature on May 13, finds for those in middle age and older, the “sweet spot” is somewhere between 6.4 and 7.8 hours. (Fast Company, 6/2)
Honeybees and shrimp are now getting vaccinated
The existing honeybee vaccine is made from inactivated Paenibacillus larvae, a bacterial pathogen that causes American foulbrood, a disease that infects and kills larval honeybees. When the vaccine is fed to the queen and she reproduces, her offspring become more resistant to those bacteria, as well as a virus that bees get from varroa mites. (ScienceNews, 6/5)
Extra Credit 🤓
“Why there is no ‘Cut for men’ (by a men’s magazine editor)” from Nick Catucci and kate lindsay of Embedded
“Paxton Blasts Talarico’s Lack of Criminal Record” from Andy Borowitz of The Borowitz Report
I fear I did lol
That’s all for now – I’ll see you on Tuesday!