What doesn't transmit light creates its own darkness
The impact of the pandemic has been larger for businesses in metropolitan areas and especially large in the New York City metropolitan area. In April 2020, the number of people who were working and self-employed was down 13 percent outside of metropolitan areas, 21 percent in metropolitan areas, and 44 percent in the New York City area.
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The decline in business activity among Black owners has been nearly three times the decline among other owners, and the decline has been bigger for Black women than for Black men.
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…The gentleman maintains his own self-cultivation and so the world is at peace. The problem with other people is that they abandon their own fields and weed the fields of others. They demand much of others, while putting little responsibility on themselves.
Mengzi, 7B:32
Zilu said, “Does the gentleman admire courage?”
The Master said, “The gentleman admires rightness above all. A gentleman who possessed courage but lacked a sense of rightness would create political disorder, while a common person who possessed courage but lacked a sense of rightness would become a bandit.”
Confucius: Analects 17.23
The archer is in some ways similar to the superior man. Upon missing the target they turn their gaze inward and seek the cause within themselves.
Confucius, Maintaining Perfect Balance
My new report on internet access in rural American is now available online.
In recent decades, rural economies have lagged their urban counterparts. Internet access may be of particular value for small businesses in rural areas, but access there remains lower. This issue brief analyzes recent survey data on internet subscriptions through three popular kinds of technology. Subscription rates in rural areas were lower for traditional broadband and mobile broadband services and higher for satellite services. Rates also varied substantially across rural areas, with subscription rates for traditional broadband services much lower in the South than in the upper Midwest. The geographic variation in subscription rates and the relationships between subscription rates for different technologies are argued to have policy implications.
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Sima Niu asked about the gentleman.
The Master replied, “The gentleman is free of anxiety and fear.”
“‘Free of anxiety and fear’ – is that all there is to being a gentleman?”
“If you can look inside yourself and find no faults, what cause is there for anxiety or fear?”
Confucius: Analects 12.4
The Master said, “When the Way was being practiced in his state, Ning Wuzi was wise, but when the Way was not being practiced, he was stupid. His wisdom can be equaled, but no one can equal his stupidity.”
Confucius: Analects 5.21
Because he has no goal in mind,
everything the Master does succeeds.
Tao Te Ching, Verse 22
When it comes to business … and surviving in the ruthless Hobbesian jungle, where much more is winner-take-all than it once was, the idea that you can be whatever you want to be, or build whatever you want to build, is a sure path to a short, unhappy existence.
Eugene Wei, Invisible asymptotes