Ben Schneider
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benmschneider.bsky.social
Ben Schneider
@benmschneider.bsky.social
2.4K followers 750 following 760 posts
Research on work, job quality, and technology. Economic history PhD from Oxford. 🗽 in 🇳🇴
sites.google.com/view/benschneider
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benmschneider.bsky.social
“I got rich by being one of the worst people on earth, but somehow not breaking any laws.”
November 9, 2025 at 12:25 PM
benmschneider.bsky.social
People will just say anything these days cc @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social
November 9, 2025 at 3:37 AM
benmschneider.bsky.social
In 🇳🇴, platform information screens show you when the train will arrive. This is socialism.

In 🇺🇸, platform information screens sell you stuff. This is capitalism, obviously superior.
November 5, 2025 at 7:21 PM
benmschneider.bsky.social
Reading successful funding applications
October 8, 2025 at 9:30 AM
benmschneider.bsky.social
Sources for the above

Winemaking: www.bls.gov/spotlight/20...

Coal Mining: researchrepository.ilo.org/esploro/outp...
September 29, 2025 at 8:45 PM
benmschneider.bsky.social
Are you sure about this?

www.bls.gov/spotlight/20...

www.energypolicy.columbia.edu/publications...
September 29, 2025 at 7:03 PM
benmschneider.bsky.social
September 11, 2025 at 7:31 PM
benmschneider.bsky.social
September 7, 2025 at 12:45 PM
benmschneider.bsky.social
Call for Papers:

4th Norwegian 🇳🇴 Winter Games ❄️ in Economic History

📍 NTNU Trondheim
📅 29 January 2026

📄 CfP Deadline: 19 October

Vi forventer noen berømte gjester fra Byåsen IL 👀

#econhist #EconSky #skystorians
Call for Papers 4th Norwegian Winter Games in Economic History NTNU Trondheim 29 January 2026 The Norwegian Economic History Association (NØHF) invites submissions for the fourth Winter Games in Economic History, to be held at NTNU Trondheim, on 29 January 2026. We have retained the popular low threshold workshop format for the Winter Games. The aim is to bring together scholars as well as PhD and master level students to help each other to develop new research ideas and paper drafts for publication. We therefore welcome submissions of two kinds: i) paper drafts and ii) outlines of future research projects. Although discussants will be assigned to each paper or research idea, all participants are expected to read colleagues’ papers and contribute to discussions. The Winter Games will continue to be a broad arena. We apply a broad understanding of economic history and welcome submissions from business history and other, neighbouring fields (i.e. historical political economy, social history, labour history, historical demography, history of economic thought, etc.). Contributions from master students and junior researchers are as valuable as those from established scholars. “Norwegian” is understood in a most liberal way, i.e., scholars either based in Norway or working on a topic related to it, independent of nationality. We also welcome contributions from other Scandinavian countries. Moreover, as a low threshold arena, papers in all stages of preparation are welcome, from your roughest draft to highly polished gems. Please send a short abstract (up to 300 words) for consideration to: norwegianeconhist@gmail.com Please specify whether your contribution will be a draft paper (i) or the outline of a future research project (ii). Deadline for submission of abstracts: 19 October Notification of successful applicants: 1 November Deadline for submission of papers: 18 January 2026
September 4, 2025 at 8:41 AM
benmschneider.bsky.social
#stortingsvalg2025
Preacher praying: Rregjeringen I see what you’ve done for Motorveien E16 and I want that for Ringeriskbanen”
September 1, 2025 at 10:51 AM
benmschneider.bsky.social
What’s that, Ursula? I wouldn’t know the US commitments because they go to another school? Oh ok
FT headline: “Europe has ‘pretty precise’ plan to send troops to Ukraine, von der Leyen says” Subheader: “post-conflict security guarantees will be fully backed by US commitments, commission president tells FT”
August 31, 2025 at 9:04 PM
benmschneider.bsky.social
Project 2025 said that the executive branch should eliminate unions in DHS, Congress should “consider” prohibiting all public sector unions, and perhaps most gallingly, wants to replace unions with “non-union worker representation” which by design has no bargaining power.
Project 2025 description of “non-union worker voice and engagement”
August 28, 2025 at 9:17 PM
benmschneider.bsky.social
August 15, 2025 at 6:42 AM
benmschneider.bsky.social
Lucy-and-Charlie-Brown-with-football dot gif
Financial Times leader column headlined “Trump’s overdue pivot on Ukraine European allies must solidify support plans in case the US president flips again”
July 20, 2025 at 3:18 PM
benmschneider.bsky.social
🦭🦭🦭🦭🦭
🏝️🏝️🏝️
June 25, 2025 at 7:49 PM
benmschneider.bsky.social
Can’t believe we are still doing this dance.

Trump will never by choice send an American service member or piece of equipment to any ally unless he sees that doing so is in his personal interest. That is his “commitment” to NATO and any other alliance.
June 25, 2025 at 9:17 AM
benmschneider.bsky.social
Just a normal football match here
June 23, 2025 at 6:10 PM
benmschneider.bsky.social
Moments in the history of technology:

Skepticism about the automation of elevator operation
From Grace Palladino, "When militancy isn't enough: The impact of automation on New York city building service workers, 1934–1970", Labor History (1987): Despite industry assertions that public demand for modern efficient service determined the decision to automate elevators, tenants obviously preferred the "human touch" to operatorless cars. In fact, opposition to conversion was strong enough to in- duce the Elevator Industries Association to publish a study proving that automation did not diminish the quality of apartment life. 43 Articles in Buildings also implied that tenants were not demanding automation. "It's a good idea, when embarking upon an elevator modernization program," one building manager pointed out in 1956, "to seek impartial help in determining your needs .... Asking tenants... ," he noted, "may put you next to some who will put up with the inefficient elevator service in the hopes for lower rents." Another article suggested in 1957 that building managers make careful plans for conversion. "Some people re- sist change," the article's author explained, "and it is just such people as this who will start a petition circulating in your building to force you to put operators back on your cars." Advertisements also suggested that public acceptance of au- tomatic elevators was not so widespread as industry press releases indicated. Although, for example, Westinghouse had explained in 1954 that the elevator was not exactly operatorless since "you were the operator," in 1955 the company pointed out that invisible infra-red beams "watched" the passengers and "protected them against mishap." Likewise, the Otis Company took pains to ex- plain, in 1953, that operatorless cars were equipped with "auto- matic elevator operators.., fully trained with instantaneous elec- tronic reflexes that never tire or slow down."
June 18, 2025 at 11:35 AM
benmschneider.bsky.social
Standards are really slipping at predatory journals
Email reading as follows: Dear Professor, Scientist, or Scholar, We cordially invite you to share your valuable research with our journal. We acknowledge that your expertise and knowledge are crucial to advancing the field, and we would be delighted to receive your submissions through our Article Submission System, which is accessible on the journal’s website. Please visit the journals consortium to select the appropriate journal according to your expertise and knowledge. To maintain the integrity of our journal, we would like to emphasise the importance of producing original and results-oriented articles **with a maximum of 15% plagiarism** [emphasis added], including references. We kindly request that you adhere to the scope of our journal and ensure that your hard work is protected. For more information on our submission guidelines, please visit our website’s “Guidelines for Authors” section. We appreciate your dedication and commitment to research, and we look forward to receiving your submissions.
June 10, 2025 at 10:01 AM
benmschneider.bsky.social
I can only speak to the costs here, but while effective tax rates are higher (c. 30% at median income), the maximum OOP for the public health system is about $250/year and childcare is about $2000/year. And this is free:
May 24, 2025 at 7:04 PM
benmschneider.bsky.social
The technology we are getting:

Frequently wrong text generation websites

The technology we need:

Lilacs that stay in bloom all summer 🪻
Light purple lilacs just starting to bloom
May 12, 2025 at 7:56 AM
benmschneider.bsky.social
“Don’t make me tap the sign” meme from the Simpsons, in which the sign says “epistemology matters”
May 4, 2025 at 10:52 AM
benmschneider.bsky.social
Even from the public broadcaster, Australian election coverage is brutal

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05...
Australia has fired Peter Dutton into the sun, taking much of the Liberal Party and its future with him. Standing in the vapour wake stood a euphoric and unimpeded Anthony Albanese, whose campaign was as devastating, driven and determined as Dutton's was dreadful, deluded and doomed. Albanese stands atop a dominant and remarkable victory that will surely change the country as profoundly as Bob Hawke and John Howard did in their time. Australia's political centre has held — as disenchanted Liberal voters continued their drift to new pastures, turning their backs on bunyip Trumpism — paradoxically even as the political core becomes more fractured and diverse. The Greens saw their own repudiation, with voters rejecting what they regarded as extremism, obstructionism and support for bad causes such as the CFMEU. Like Howard in 1998, when he won after a difficult first term, Albanese has earned something that five of his immediate predecessors over the last 21 years did not — an unfettered opportunity to string together a lengthy stint in the job.
May 3, 2025 at 5:31 PM
benmschneider.bsky.social
May 2, 2025 at 11:50 AM
benmschneider.bsky.social
Elite-tier gerrymandering from our Canadian friends 🇨🇦

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1917_Ca...
To ensure victory for conscription, Borden introduced two laws to skew the voting towards the government. The first, the Wartime Elections Act, disenfranchised conscientious objectors and Canadian citizens if they were born in enemy countries and had arrived after 1902. The law also gave female relatives of servicemen the vote. Thus, the 1917 election was the first federal election in which some women were allowed to vote. The other new law was the Military Voters Act, which allowed soldiers serving abroad to choose which riding their vote would be counted in or to allow the party for which they voted to select the riding in which the vote would be counted. That allowed government officials to guide the strongly pro-conscription soldiers into voting in those ridings where they would be more useful. Servicemen were given a ballot with the simple choice of "Government" or "Opposition". It is calculated that the Unionist government took 14 seats from the Opposition due to its use of Army votes.[4]
April 28, 2025 at 9:11 PM