Zoë Plakias
Associate Professor of Economics @ Western Washington University | she/her
Scholarship + teaching on food, agriculture, environment, resources
Also: equity, mentorship, pedagogy, public transit, kindness, legos, cats
Views are my own
www.zoeplakias.com
- Excellent read 👇
- Just walked by the practice/dance session for the dance student club that two students in my Intro Micro course started a few years back. It always brings me such joy to think about the relationships and ventures that are sparked just by creating space in class for students to talk + connect.
- Are you f****** kidding me? I teach students who are working full time while they go to school to make ends meet + my parents are both working after retirement to supplement social security. How about the richest man in the world + grifter in chief + their pedo friends pay their damn taxes.
- Just thinking about how much effort it took to get little Liam + his dad back to MN+ how it would be a lot more effecient to simply *not kidnap people in the first place.* I hope Liam + his dad get some peace + he can go back to playing with trucks or dolls or whatever he likes with his kid friends.
- *efficient
- Pro tip: Before you invite a seminar speaker, hire a big name at your institution, or cash a big check from a donor, throw their name in the search bar of the Epstein files.
- TFW you are working on improving students' data literacy and one of them writes "It's definitely getting easier to read graphs." Yes!!!! We love to see it.
- All of this!!! For example, Ohio State (not an Ivy but big deal R1) has... Wexner Medical Center Wexner Center for the Arts These are named after Les Wexner, who made his money on Victoria's Secret, Abercrombie, etc. + employed Epstein as his financial manager for 20 years + bankrolled his abuses.
- Look up Les Wexner on Wikiepedia to learn more. Many other companies you'll recognize are or were part of his L Brands. And this culture of sexual violence shows up in companies that he influenced/owned. Here's a story about the horrors folks experienced at Abercrombie + Fitch under the CEO he hired
- Everything I read about the Epstein stuff just makes me think... Wow all of these people really hate women. The misogyny is just off the charts. (Of course men + nonbinary folks can be victims of sexual violence, too, but that doesn't seem to be the theme in this case, from what I've seen.)
- Though provoking post! Some folks in my network work in tech + here are a few thoughts + observations: - These layoffs affect real people + have knock on effects for communities. E.g., I see folks on LinkedIn talking about losing their house. Can't pay a $$$ mortgage if you're laid off. 1/3
- At some point, the fact that *over* 1/3 of gaming workers were laid off last year, and the fact that over half a million tech workers have been laid off over the last 3 years, will have to be reckoned with as a society, instead of being swept under the rug anildash.com/2026/01/06/5...
- - There are also implications for universities who have been cranking out Data Science and CompSci students. These jobs are gone + folks are scrambling. - While I don't revel in anyone's misfortune, I'll be glad to see folks' talents turned elsewhere. IMHO, too many tech workers' skills... 2/3
- ...are squandered in jobs where they are doing things like optimizing advertising revenue or pricing to squeeze consumer surplus out of average folks and transfer it to billionaires. I hope as some of these folks start new businesses, they are thoughtful about what role they play in the world. 3/3
- This seems... unsurprising. To amass that much $$$ in the first place, these folks actively ignore the moral implications of their business (labor conditions, worker pay, environmental impacts, implications for communities, customer service, etc.).
- *customer service is a little vague. I am thinking of things like insurance companies trying to get out of paying for needed treatmenta for example
