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Idea Stock Exchange

What to argue next

The claims the most depends on, with the least work behind them. Settling one of these moves every belief above it. Relied on is how much of this site rests on the claim; work value is that times how much of the work is still undone. The 162 beliefs themselves are left out, because "argue the conclusion" is not a plan.

What this list means

How it is worked out. Relied on times the share of the work still undone (one minus confidence). A claim everything rests on but nobody has worked on comes first; a claim everything rests on and that is already well argued drops down.

Why it is tracked. To point the next contributor at the work that matters, instead of at whatever is most talked about. The exact rule, with its numbers →

What it shows. The claims where one more hour of work would move the most.

#ClaimRelied onTruthConfBeliefs above itWork value
1Liberty, personal responsibility and civic engagement each become distorted when pursued on their own. Claim0.00070.500%10.0007
2Liberty without responsibility turns into lawlessness, meaning freedom that contributes nothing and has no connection to other people. Claim0.00070.500%10.0007
3When responsibility is cut loose from liberty, the slogan "personal responsibility" gets used as a weapon to justify privilege and concentrate authority. Claim0.00070.500%10.0007
4Absolute liberty without shared rules produces chaos in which only the powerful thrive. Claim0.00070.500%10.0007
5Voters need enough information to judge whether an official is compromised. Interest0.00090.5030%50.0006
6Citizens need government decisions made on the merits rather than on what enriches the decider. Interest0.00080.5030%50.0006
7High rates of homelessness and crime in downtown Denver have increased commercial vacancies, making urban living less attractive and working against efforts to promote density. Claim0.00060.500%10.0006
8Environmental advocates need less urban sprawl and more sustainable living. Interest0.00060.500%10.0006
9Urban planners need efficient, livable city spaces. Interest0.00060.500%10.0006
10Public transit authorities need higher ridership to justify their investments and to reduce traffic congestion. Interest0.00060.500%10.0006
11Residents concerned about safety need crime and homelessness addressed, and may oppose densification that does not address them. Interest0.00060.500%10.0006
12Officials and their families need the same property rights and privacy as other citizens. Interest0.00070.5030%50.0005
13Workers bear the costs of bad decisions such as layoffs and plant closures, so they deserve a voice in making them. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
14Workers know how the company actually runs day to day, and boards make better decisions with that knowledge in the room. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
15A board that answers only to shareholders tends to chase short-term stock gains at the expense of the company's long-term health. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
16Owners put their money at risk, and the people who bear the financial risk should be the ones who control the company. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
17Worker directors face a conflict of interest whenever the board must cut jobs or close a site to keep the company alive. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
18Boards with two sets of loyalties reach decisions more slowly, and slow companies lose to faster rivals. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
19Profit is a signal that a company is making something people want at a price they will pay, which is itself a public service. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
20Managers who are told to serve everyone end up answering to no one and can excuse poor results as serving some other goal. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
21Broad social problems are the job of elected governments, which answer to voters, not of managers who answer to no voter. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
22Many of a company's costs, like pollution or worker burnout, fall on people who never agreed to bear them and never show up in the profit figure. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
23The law always lags behind business practice, so a company that does only what the law requires will harm people the law has not yet caught up with. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
24Companies that treat workers, suppliers and towns well tend to earn trust that pays off over decades, which a narrow focus on profit misses. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
25A single play earns almost nothing, so only artists with enormous audiences see meaningful income from their recordings. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
26The money is split so that most of it flows to labels, publishers and the platforms before any reaches the person who wrote or performed the song. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
27Musicians now depend on touring and merchandise to survive, which favors the young and healthy and pushes out those who cannot live on the road. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
28Streaming brought paying listeners back after years of free downloading, and total music income has grown again as a result, spread across far more artists. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
29Before streaming, most musicians earned nothing from recordings because they never got a record deal at all, so the comparison is with obscurity, not with a golden age. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
30Low per-play rates reflect what listeners will pay for unlimited music, and forcing rates higher would shrink the audience rather than raise incomes. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
31Any musician can upload a song and be heard anywhere in the world the same day, which was impossible when labels controlled distribution. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
32Listeners discover artists from other countries and small scenes, so careers can start from anywhere instead of a few music-industry cities. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
33Artists keep the rights to their own work more often, because they no longer need a label's money to press records and ship them to stores. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
34When everyone can publish, the flood of new songs makes it harder than ever for any one artist to be noticed, and reach without attention is worth little. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
35Playlists chosen by platform staff and software have replaced record labels as gatekeepers, so artists still depend on a few decision-makers they cannot reach. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
36Making music available for almost nothing worldwide has taught listeners that music should cost nothing, and that expectation follows artists into every other part of their business. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
37Comedy works by saying what people are not supposed to say, and a comedian who must avoid every touchy subject cannot do the job. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
38Audiences already control comedy by laughing or not, and a joke that lands badly punishes itself without anyone needing to end a career. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
39When comedians are punished for offense, the safest response is blandness, and the loss falls on every audience, not just the people who were offended. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005
40Losing a booking is not censorship; venues and networks are free to decide who they pay, just as comedians are free to speak. Claim0.00050.500%10.0005

10 claims sit beneath more than one belief, so settling any of those moves all of them.

Built from revision 42c8344, committed 2026-10-04. 2173 pages. Every number above is computed from the two tables in that revision, so a reader who fetches it gets these numbers and not different ones.