Ep 47 [1/2]: Ramona Massachi: Spirituality, Judaism, and MMT.

Welcome to episode 47 of Activist #MMT. Today I talk with second-year MMT activist Ramona Massachi. Ramona is a New Jersey resident, mother of two, and an artist who creates handmade jewelry, chandeliers, and metal sculptures that light up. She designs the latter by programming it into a 3-D CAD program. She is also a modern orthodox Jew and talks about the struggles of personally having strong progressive values but being part of a community that is highly conservative. In addition to her Judaism, Ramona has practiced meditation since the age of sixteen. When she discovered MMT in early 2019, she describes it as academic justification for what she had always known to be true: that there is abundance in the world and it has always been possible to provide all with what is needed to prevent suffering. We end with a good faith debate about the current state of our society, electoral process, and the elite behind at all. I play the role of the dark cynic, and she, a self-described extreme optimist. This is part one of a two-part conversation. In part two, Ramona and I talk about how we worked together for several months to coordinate and schedule private introductions to MMT for dozens of federal candidates, with PhD economists. Note that this two-part conversation is not a discussion of MMT concepts but rather how MMT has affected our lives and political views. Resources Bernie Sanders Middle East policy speech, March 22, 2016 Nathan Tankus’ blog Notes on the Crises #LearnMMT For an overview of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) with many reliable sources to learn more, here is a good place to start: On the web: My large set of resources containing many expert sources and layperson tutorials. On Twitter: My massive pinned tweet with expert sources and layperson tutorials. On Facebook: Follow this podcast :) The pinned post contains the above web-article. Also, the pinned post on Modern Monetary for Real Progressives contains a wealth of information. Please become a monthly patron of Activist #MMT We shouldn't have to beg, but we do have to beg. So it's not *that* we beg, but *who* we beg. I am choosing to beg you, my listeners, to financially support this show. For even a dollar a month, you'll get exclusive patron-only content and updates, highlighted by around four-days access to every episode, before they're released to the public. However, you'll also get super-early access to several episodes, weeks, and sometimes even months in advance. To be clear, however, all episodes of Activist #MMT are free, for all, forever. Patrons only get the opportunity to hear them before the public. Take a listen. If you like what you hear, please consider becoming a monthly patron of Activist #MMT. You can start here: https://www.patreon.com/activistmmt. ✌️, ❤️, and #MMT 🦉