Corrections

Any project this large will get things wrong. When we find a factual error, we fix it and record it here, with the date, so that you can see what changed and judge our reliability for yourself.

This is the same principle the Transition rests on: when something doesn’t work, look at it honestly, correct it, and keep going. Typo fixes and rewording for clarity are not listed; changes to facts, figures and claims are.

Found an error? Please tell us at community.forum@worldintransition.net, with the page and, if you can, a source.

November 10, 2026 · Transition Roadmap

We wrote that over 300 community land trusts operate in the U.S. The most recent census, from 2022, counts 314 community land trusts and similar shared-equity organizations together; there is no separate count for land trusts alone. The text now says about 300 land trusts and similar organizations.

November 6, 2026 · The Cure (long version, data appendix)

We gave the top one percent 40 percent of U.S. wealth, from a 2016 estimate. The appendix now uses the Federal Reserve’s Distributional Financial Accounts for the second quarter of 2026, which include the Forbes 400: the top one percent hold 32.5 percent, the top ten percent 68.9 percent, and the bottom half 2.3 percent. The Titanic illustration and the wealth table were redrawn to match.
We gave about 17 percent of individuals below the Federal poverty line. The official rate was 11.1 percent of people in 2023.
Living wages in the text were 2017 figures. They are now adjusted for inflation to 2023, matching the charts, and the percentiles and shortfalls that depend on them were recalculated.
We wrote that the “vast majority” are paid less than or barely enough to cover the cost of living. The documented figure is more than 40 percent of U.S. households.
We called U.S. wealth concentration “indistinguishable” from most feudal societies. It rivals that of many feudal societies, and the text now says so, with a source.
We wrote that the Titanic had lifeboats for a third of those on board. It was about half.

November 2, 2026 · Site-wide: sources and figures

Under our sourcing policy, official U.S. government data published by the Trump administration has been replaced with data released before January 2017 or between February 2021 and January 2025, or with independent sources. Where the figure changed as a result, the text now gives the earlier figure and its year (for example homelessness, food insecurity, maternal mortality, recidivism and federal research funding).
Saudi Arabia: we wrote that the king holds the title of Prime Minister. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been Prime Minister since September 2022.
United States: we gave 2022 health-spending dollar figures alongside the 2023 share of GDP. The text now uses the 2023 figures throughout: about $4.9 trillion, or about $14,570 per person.
Brazil: we attributed more than $5 billion in bribes to construction firms led by Odebrecht. That is the estimate for the whole Car Wash (Lava Jato) investigation; the text now says so.
Bolivia and Zimbabwe: lithium figures now follow the U.S. Geological Survey’s January 2024 estimates (Bolivia 23 million tonnes, ahead of Argentina’s 22 million rather than tied; Zimbabwe’s reserves about 310,000 tonnes).

November 2, 2026 · The Cure (long version, data appendix)

We wrote that inflation has consistently outpaced wage and salary growth for the bottom 40 percent over the past 95 years. From 1947 to the late 1970s, real incomes at every level roughly doubled and the bottom fifth gained as fast as anyone; stagnation for the bottom half began around 1980. The text now says so, with sources.
We wrote that hundreds of millions of people in the United States live on sub or barely living income. The documented figure is 54 million households, 42 percent of all U.S. households, below the cost of basics in 2022 (United For ALICE). The text now uses it.
We gave an older homelessness figure (554,000) and vacancy count alongside newer ones. The paragraph now uses the current figures throughout: 771,480 people homeless in January 2024 and about 15.8 million vacant homes.

October 31, 2026 · The Cure (short version, chapters 18 and 39; long version, chapters 33 and 46)

We wrote that for three decades more and more citizens have had to work steadily more hours. Hours per worker rose about 11 percent from 1979 to 2007 and have not kept rising since; the larger rise was in families, where middle-income couples with children worked about 19 percent more hours, mostly because mothers took on paid work. The text now gives these figures with their dates.
We wrote that a low-wage worker with a mangled arm will be told it cannot be saved and have it amputated, while a billionaire’s arm is saved. Trauma data do not show this: uninsured patients with leg wounds are not more likely to lose the limb, though they are nearly twice as likely to die. The chapter now uses what is documented: the gap in life expectancy by income and wealth, deaths before Medicare age, deaths prevented by Medicaid, diabetic amputations (up to ten times more common in the poorest neighbourhoods) and unequal access to prostheses.
We wrote that “religious liberty” lets an employer fire or refuse to hire someone for almost anything framed as a religious objection, with no protection for employees’ own faith. Most employers are still bound by anti-discrimination law; the wide exemptions belong to religious organisations and to some for-profit companies on specific issues, and employees’ right to religious accommodation, long weak, was strengthened in 2023 (<em>Groff v. DeJoy</em>). The text now cites the cases, matching chapter 24.
We wrote that earlier versions of the new paradigm showed “vastly increased productivity”. The research shows that worker cooperatives and employee-owned firms match or exceed the productivity of conventional firms, by roughly 4 to 18 percent in the studies that measure it, when workers share in decisions. The text now says so, cites the ILO background study, and names the experiments that were ended by force.

October 29, 2026 · The Cure (web pages, both versions)

We wrote that Europeans systematically slaughtered the peoples of the Americas. Most deaths came from disease that Europeans brought; war, massacre, enslavement and, in places, state-funded extermination did much of the rest. The text now says so, and cites historians on the documented parallels that Nazi planners themselves drew with America’s conquest of the West.
When the book was first converted to web pages, nearly all of the original edition’s 93 footnotes were lost. They have now been restored as inline sources wherever the current text still makes the same claim (77 notes, plus matching citations in the short version). Dead links point to archived copies, and a few notes whose claims have since been corrected were not restored.
We wrote that nearly half of low-wage workers in 2012 held at least a bachelor’s degree (short version: “nearly half of college graduates”). The study counts workers with some college education or a degree: about 17% in 1968 and nearly half in 2012. The text now says so.
We wrote that more and more laws define strikers as “economic terrorists”. That was a proposed 2016 Washington State bill, which did not pass; what has passed in more than a dozen states are felony penalties for trespass or interference at “critical infrastructure”. The text now says so.
We wrote that pharmacists, wedding businesses, landlords and employers may impose their religion on others, and that a worker fired over a Bible study set a precedent. The chapter now cites the actual court cases in both directions, and notes that the worker’s case settled.

October 28, 2026 · The Cure (web pages, both versions; downloads to follow)

We wrote that over 52% of U.S. workers were paid under $30,000 a year. Social Security wage data for 2015 put the share at 50.1%; the text now says "about half" and cites the SSA table.
We wrote that CEOs of bailed-out companies in 2008 received bonuses of hundreds of millions of dollars. Individual bonuses and exit packages were mostly in the tens of millions; the text now says so.
We wrote that the 53% labour share excluded health and retirement benefits. That share already includes benefits; the text now says so.
We wrote that engineers who share work information with a competitor face imprisonment. Breaching a nondisclosure agreement is usually a civil matter; prison applies to theft of trade secrets (up to ten years under 18 U.S.C. § 1832). The text now says this.
We wrote that Apple's iOS 11 update slowed iPhones until they were useless. Updates from iOS 10.2.1 onwards slowed older iPhones with worn batteries; Apple denied wrongdoing but paid up to $500 million to settle. The text now says this.
We wrote that drug companies spend far more on advertising than on research. The estimate covers all promotion, not only advertising: about $57.5 billion on promotion and $31.5 billion on research in the U.S. in 2004. The text now says this.
We wrote that new health and legal professionals start with student debt of a quarter to half a million dollars or more. Typical figures are about $200,000 for new doctors and close to $300,000 for new dentists; the text now says this.
We wrote that insurers delay claims "with the intention that the patient will die in the meantime." Intent has not been documented. The text now says that such delays have, in documented cases, outlasted the patient, and it cites the 2007 death of Nataline Sarkisyan.
We wrote that farming practices make tap water "contaminated with hormones." The documented finding is that hormones and drug residues are found in streams downstream of animal production. The text now says "waterways" and cites the USGS.
We wrote that it is "too soon to know" whether GM crops are safe to eat. A major 2016 National Academies review found no substantiated evidence that foods from the GM crops then on the market were less safe than conventional foods. The text now says so, while noting that long-term ecological and nutritional effects are still uncertain.
We wrote that Goldman Sachs "will suppress" gene-therapy research that isn't profitable. Goldman Sachs is an investment bank that advises investors; it does not conduct research. The text now quotes its 2018 report's question to investors, "Is curing patients a sustainable business model?"
We wrote that Apple slowed older iPhones "in order to force customers to buy newer ones." Apple's motive was never established. Apple said the throttling prevented battery-related shutdowns, and it settled the U.S. lawsuit for up to $500 million without admitting wrongdoing. The text now says this.
We wrote that, at the current rate of population growth, we are "rapidly approaching" unavoidable famine. Population growth is slowing, and the UN projects a peak of about 10.3 billion in the mid-2080s. The text now gives these figures.
We wrote that industries systematically destroyed Los Angeles's transit system in the 1930s to force people into cars. In fact, GM, Firestone and Standard Oil of California were convicted in 1949 of conspiring to monopolize the sale of buses to the transit companies they controlled, which hastened the end of streetcar systems already in decline. The text now says this.
We wrote that the jobs automation eliminates are "usually sub-living-wage jobs." Research shows automation has cut deepest into routine middle-wage jobs, pushing many displaced workers into lower-paid service work. The text now says so.
We wrote that prisons are a reservoir of slave labor for "mammoth for-profit enterprises." About 800,000 U.S. prisoners do work for pennies an hour or nothing, but most of them maintain the prisons; work for private firms is a small share. The text now says this.
We wrote that employee health-insurance contributions often reduce take-home pay "by around 20%." We could not support that figure. The text now gives the 2024 average worker contribution for family coverage ($6,296 a year, KFF).
We wrote that insurers "always take in dramatically more than they pay out." Under the Affordable Care Act, insurers must spend 80–85% of premiums on care or refund the difference. The text now says they may keep up to 15–20% for administration and profit.
We wrote that laws had been introduced "at the highest levels of government" redefining peaceful dissent as "economic terrorism". In fact, the documented moves are state laws: since 2017, 45 states have considered nearly 400 bills restricting protest and more than 60 have passed, some raising penalties for protest near "critical infrastructure". The text now says so and cites the ICNL tracker.
We wrote that England sought to bring down the United States "for many decades after Independence". In fact British hostility largely ended with the War of 1812; the text now says so.
We wrote that life-saving drugs are routinely kept in short supply to keep prices high. In fact most U.S. drug shortages hit cheap generics: most medicines in shortage in 2023 cost under $5, because low margins drive makers out. The text now says profit logic fails patients both ways: high brand prices and shortages of cheap generics.
We wrote that many medieval towns ran their mills and granaries in common. In fact many mills belonged to lords who forced peasants to use them and pay for it; the text now says so.
We wrote that media control is "equally true" in China, North Korea, Syria, Russia, Iran and the United States. In fact the mechanisms and degree differ greatly: RSF ranks the U.S. 64th of 180 for press freedom, against 172nd–179th for China, North Korea, Russia and Iran. The text now describes the difference.
We wrote that artists often receive less than ten cents of every dollar they generate. In fact a 2018 Citigroup study put artists' share of U.S. music revenue at about 12%; the text now gives that figure.
We wrote that the "overwhelming majority" of jobs pay sub- or barely-living wages. In fact Brookings (2019) found 44% of U.S. workers, about 53 million people, earn low hourly wages; the text now gives that figure.
We cited the Superconducting Super Collider as research suppressed for lack of profit. In fact Congress cancelled it in 1993 over cost overruns in a public budget; the example has been removed.
We described China's smog and U.S. land being made "uninhabitable" in the present tense. In fact China has cut fine-particle pollution by about 41% since 2013, and "degraded" is the accurate word for the U.S. damage; the text is now dated and corrected.
We called "generational welfare" a myth and cited a study as finding that intergenerational welfare use mostly reflects inherited poverty. In fact that study (Dahl, Kostøl & Mogstad) found a real causal link: a parent's disability award raised the adult child's chance of receiving one by 12 percentage points over ten years. The text now says the "welfare queen" is a myth, claims about "generational welfare" are exaggerated, and some real passing-on exists.
We wrote that there were efforts "at the highest echelons" to encode into law employers' right to fire people for lawful private conduct. In fact this is already the default in most U.S. states; only a few, such as California, Colorado, New York and North Dakota, broadly protect lawful off-duty activities. The text now says so.
We wrote that after the Moon landings space research shrank to "half-hearted, tame token research". In fact space science continued (Voyager, Hubble, the James Webb telescope, Mars rovers), though on small budgets; the text now says so.
We wrote that the top 1% are "knowingly and deliberately protected" in statistical reporting. In fact survey top-coding exists to protect respondents' confidentiality and applies to everyone above the threshold; the text now says so.
We wrote that the top 0.001% "gained more income than the bottom 99%". The table shows growth rates, not amounts; the text now says the top 0.001%'s incomes grew more than 150 times as fast as the bottom 20%'s (Piketty, Saez & Zucman, 2018).
We cited an unnamed study as finding Millennials earn 12–18% less than Generation X and 24–27% less than Boomers. The study is a 2018 Federal Reserve staff paper, and its figures are how much more earlier generations earned at the same age (full-time household heads, mid-2010s). The text now names and dates it and states the figures correctly.
We wrote that over 52% of Americans are paid less than a living wage. No such figure is established. Brookings (2019) found that about 44% of U.S. workers aged 18–64, some 53 million people, earn low hourly wages, and the text now says so.
We wrote that some legislators had pushed to abolish the minimum wage altogether. The documented proposals were to repeal state minimum-wage laws above the federal floor (for example Nevada, 2015). The text now says that, and adds Missouri's 2017 rollback of St. Louis's $10 wage to $7.70.
We wrote that money developed to replace barter. Anthropologists have found no society where money grew out of everyday barter; credit and mutual obligation came first. The text now says so.
We wrote that many places have laws preventing you from growing your own food. In fact these are mainly local or homeowners'-association rules against front-yard vegetable gardens, and Florida banned such local rules in 2019. The text now says that.
We wrote that the buffalo were destroyed in order to starve Native peoples. In fact commercial hunters did most of the killing, and many army officers welcomed and encouraged it as a way to force the Plains nations onto reservations. The text now says that.
We wrote that over half a million Americans are homeless, that there are over twelve million vacant units, and that there is "no actual shortage". HUD counted about 771,000 homeless people in January 2024, and many vacant units are second homes, for sale or in the wrong place. The text now gives the HUD figure and describes the shortage as one of affordable homes where people need them.
We wrote that the oil industry had suppressed renewable technologies for over sixty years. The documented case is that oil companies' own scientists accurately projected global warming from the late 1970s while the companies publicly cast doubt on it (Supran et al., Science, 2023). The text now says so.
We wrote that individuals responsible for corporate wrongs are shielded from any responsibility. Corporate officers can be held personally liable; it is rare, not impossible. The text now says "rarely held personally responsible".
We wrote that subscription software holds your files hostage, blocking access until you pay. In fact Microsoft 365 apps go into a reduced mode in which you can still open and print your files but cannot edit them. The text now says so.
We wrote that eminent domain is increasingly used to hand land to corporations. After the Supreme Court allowed such takings in Kelo (2005), dozens of states passed laws restricting them, although many of those laws were weak. The text now says that.
We wrote that sealed-in batteries have "absolutely no technical advantage". They allow small gains such as slimness and water resistance. The text now says the gains are small, and notes that the EU will require user-replaceable batteries in most portable devices from 2027.
We wrote that one can be fired for offending the religious beliefs of one's boss. Religious discrimination in employment is illegal under federal law (Title VII). The text now refers to political views and off-hours speech, which are unprotected in most states.
We wrote that in many places it is illegal to collect rainwater or grow food on one's property. Rainwater collection is legal in every U.S. state, with limits in a few, and garden bans are mainly homeowners'-association or local rules. The text now says so.
We wrote that the U.S. failed miserably at fostering science and that the Soviet Union did a superb job. The U.S. led the world in research, while Soviet science was censored (genetics was suppressed for decades under Lysenko). The text now says the U.S. left these fields out of reach for many, and the Soviet Union made them widely accessible while censoring them.
We wrote that an iOS update forced customers to buy new iPhones. Apple did secretly slow older iPhones, and it settled the U.S. lawsuits for up to $500 million without admitting wrongdoing, but customers were not forced to replace them. The text now says that.
We wrote that renewable technologies more efficient than fossil fuels had been available since the 1950s and were suppressed. Solar and wind became cost-competitive only in recent decades, and the documented misconduct is climate deception and lobbying. The text now says renewables have existed in some form for decades, are cheaper than ever today, and that fossil-fuel interests slowed them while hiding what their scientists knew.
We wrote that women are usually paid "a lot less" than men doing the same job with the same qualifications. In fact, U.S. women earn about 82 cents per man's dollar overall, and the gap for the same job and qualifications is smaller, though real; the text now says so.
We wrote that the Soviet Union "succeeded to an impressive degree" in ending gender bias. In fact, it made major gains in women's education and employment, but women still carried most domestic work and rarely reached the top; the text now says so.
We wrote that by the 1960s–70s it was known that fossil fuels would cause out-of-control warming and possibly the end of our species. In fact, scientists warned in 1965 that CO₂ could change the climate, and oil companies' own scientists projected the warming accurately from the late 1970s; the text now says so.
We wrote that Milton Friedman held business should make money "regardless" of its effects. In fact, he wrote that profit should be pursued within the law and the "rules of the game"; the text now quotes him accurately and keeps the critique of how the principle is used.
We wrote that healthier foods cost "multiples" of less healthy ones. In fact, a healthier diet costs about $1.50 more per person per day, a real barrier on low wages; the text now says so.
We wrote that humanity threatens "the continued existence of multi-cellular life" and that the extinction's degree matches the dinosaur extinction 65 million years ago. In fact, about a million species are threatened, extinction rates are tens to hundreds of times the background, and the asteroid impact was 66 million years ago; the text now says so.
We wrote that companies deliberately sabotaged Los Angeles's public transport in the early twentieth century. In fact, GM, Firestone, Standard Oil of California and others were convicted in 1949 of conspiring to monopolize bus sales to transit systems they had bought, including in Los Angeles, which helped finish off streetcars already struggling against the car; the text now says so.
We wrote that a baby formula banned in the U.S. as harmful was then marketed abroad. We found no such case. The documented scandal is the aggressive marketing of infant formula in low-income countries, which led to the 1981 WHO code; the text now describes that case.
We wrote that frank sex education reduces "the birth rate as a whole". In fact, the evidence shows it reduces teen pregnancy; the text now says so.
We wrote that laws now define most strikes and nonviolent demonstrations as "economic terrorism" and let drivers hit peaceful demonstrators with impunity. In fact, since 2016 more than a dozen states have made trespass or interference at pipelines and other "critical infrastructure" a felony, and in 2021 Oklahoma granted immunity to drivers who injure people while "fleeing from a riot". The text now says this, with sources.
We wrote that oil companies hired "mercenary militia" to beat and kill opponents. The documented case is different: Indonesian soldiers guarding ExxonMobil's Aceh facility were accused of torture and killings, and the company settled the villagers' lawsuit in 2023 while denying responsibility. The text now describes that case.
We wrote that being out of work for one to three months after graduating becomes an "increasingly impenetrable barrier". The research shows a gradual effect: a U.S. field experiment found interview callbacks fall about 45% between one and eight months of unemployment. The text now gives that finding.
We wrote that water wheels would replace most large dams. Water wheels cannot match large hydropower, so the text now says smaller-scale and run-of-river hydropower will replace damaging large dams where practical.
We wrote that U.S. media control is "almost as much as in China and North Korea". The U.S. press is far freer than in either country. The text now makes the narrower point that concentrated media ownership shapes what the public sees.
We wrote that "billions of people are hungry". The FAO estimates that hundreds of millions go hungry, and that about 2.3 billion lack reliable access to enough food. The text now says this.
We wrote that poor people "simply can't afford healthier food". Cost is a real factor, since healthier diets cost about $1.50 a day more, but time, stress and local food supply also play a part. The text now says so.
We wrote that China and India are repeating the West's mistakes "rather than learning from them". Both still build coal power, but China installed about 64% of the world's new renewable capacity in 2024. The text now says both.
We wrote that today's young adults will have to work more hours than their parents, a claim we could not confirm. The text now cites the documented decline in the share of Americans who out-earn their parents: about 90% of those born in 1940, about half of those born in the 1980s.
We wrote that over 99% of multilevel-marketing recruits lose money. A national AARP Foundation survey found that nearly half lost money and about a quarter broke even. The text now uses those figures.
We wrote that "most land is owned by a tiny sliver of the population", which is not true of U.S. homes or of land in general. The text now cites a documented measure of concentration: the largest 1% of farms operate over 70% of the world's farmland.
We wrote that the link between smoking and cancer was established in the 1920s and observed in the seventeenth century. Physicians noticed tobacco-related cancers in the 1700s, and major studies showed in 1950 that smoking causes lung cancer; the text now says so.
Several passages gave the world population as seven billion. It is now about 8.2 billion; the figures have been updated.

October 27, 2026 · The Cure (glossary; long ch05, ch06, ch08, ch10, ch11, ch13, ch15, ch19, ch21, ch23, ch26, ch31, ch39, ch41, ch43, ch45; short ch03, ch05, ch06, ch08, ch11, ch15, ch21, ch23, ch26, ch31, ch39, ch43)

We called infected blankets sent by the U.S. Army “the earliest known instance of biological warfare”. The documented case was carried out by British officers at Fort Pitt in 1763, before the United States existed, and biological warfare goes back to antiquity; the long version now lists recorded instances up to the nineteenth century.
We wrote that Hitler signed a treaty with Russia, the U.S. and Britain. He signed the Munich Agreement with Britain, France and Italy in 1938 and a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union in 1939; the U.S. signed neither.
We wrote that Nazi operatives disguised as Communists set the Reichstag fire. No source describes that. Who set the fire is still disputed, with serious evidence of Nazi involvement; what is certain is that Hitler used it to suspend civil liberties. The text now says so, and gives documented examples of the disguise and infiltration tactic: the Gleiwitz incident (1939) and the FBI’s COINTELPRO programme.
We repeated the myth that medieval Europe believed the earth was flat. Educated medieval Europeans knew it was round; what they believed was that it sat motionless at the centre of the universe.
We wrote that Van Leeuwenhoek invented the microscope. Microscopes already existed; he was the first to see microbes, with microscopes he built himself.
We wrote that Star Trek’s captain was first scripted as an alien woman. In the first pilot the captain was a man; a woman, “Number One”, was second-in-command, and her role was dropped from the new pilot. We also overstated the pressure on Mary Tyler Moore: sponsors limited how often she wore slacks.
We wrote that the Amazon supplies a significant share of the oxygen we breathe. Its net oxygen contribution is about zero; its importance is carbon storage, rainfall and biodiversity. Its clearing is driven mainly by beef and soy, not plastics.
We wrote that the CIA installed Pinochet. The record documents a deliberate, well-funded U.S. campaign to destabilise Chile’s elected government, CIA awareness of the coup plotting, and active CIA support for the dictatorship afterwards; how far its role in the coup itself went is still debated.
We wrote that corporate interests used “even murder” to kill Los Angeles’s transit system and that no charges stuck. No murder is documented; in 1949 General Motors, Firestone, Standard Oil of California and others were convicted of conspiracy, and General Motors was fined $5,000. The decline came mainly in the mid-twentieth century.
We wrote that the Superconducting Super Collider was abandoned half-built over opposition to taxing corporations. Congress cancelled it in 1993 as costs rose past $11 billion, after 14 of 54 miles of tunnel had been dug.
We gave 20–100 million people for North America alone before 1492. A recent estimate is about 60 million for all of the Americas; the text now leads with the Inca state as an economy that ran without money.
We wrote that yearly tuition at state colleges exceeds most people’s annual income. Average public tuition was $11,610 in 2024–25; with housing and living costs the total approaches $30,000.
We wrote that 99% of safety-net recipients receive aid for four years or less, and that 97% of Americans use such programmes by 65. The study behind the first figure only followed people for four years, so it cannot show that; the lifetime figure is about two-thirds. The point stands on firmer evidence: most welfare spells are short, about 45% of Americans use a safety-net programme by 60, and studies find “generational welfare” mostly reflects inherited poverty.
We wrote that employee health-insurance contributions rose 700% and deductibles 1,000% since the 1990s. KFF data show contributions for family coverage roughly quadrupled since 1999 and deductibles more than doubled in a decade: far faster than wages, but not those figures.
We wrote that the United States imprisons the highest share of its population in the world. It did for years; it now ranks among the highest, far above any other wealthy democracy.
We wrote that Nordic birth rates hold stable at the break-even point. They have fallen well below replacement level.
We wrote that open source involves no corporations and no profit, and that Linux has no corporate support. Many contributors are paid by companies, and companies sell Linux support; what defines open source is that no one can lock the code away.
We wrote that most employees’ taxes rose under the 2017 tax law. In 2018 most households got a small cut, heavily skewed to the top; the cuts for ordinary people were set to expire while the corporate cut was permanent, and about half of taxpayers would have paid more by 2027 under the law as passed. We also wrote that small businesses got no tax breaks; they received a deduction.
The glossary described a $78.5 billion gain as one person’s 2017 income. The figures now match chapter 4: a fortune that grew by about $33 billion, mostly from share value.
We wrote that teaching an enslaved person to read was punishable by death. Anti-literacy laws in many Southern states made it a crime, punished mainly by fines, whipping or jail.
We wrote that the few cultures that practise female genital mutilation treat it as part of Islam. It is practised in some thirty countries by Muslim, Christian and other communities; it is a cultural practice that none of these faiths teaches.
We wrote that in Saudi Arabia it is a crime for a woman to go out alone without being completely covered. Those rules have since been loosened; the text now describes Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan as they are today.
We wrote that the Allies forced “the Axis” to sign a treaty after World War I. The Axis belongs to World War II; the treaty was the Treaty of Versailles, imposed on Germany.
We wrote that the lender legally owns a mortgaged home and that payments give the borrower no rights. Legally, the borrower holds the title and is entitled to any money left after a foreclosure sale. The text now says so, and describes how a family can still lose the home: late fees, credit damage, foreclosure after 120 days behind, and forced sales at steep discounts that often leave little or nothing. The figures for how many homeowners have a mortgage were also corrected (“most”, not 66% or three-fourths).

October 26, 2026 · The Cure (chapters 37 and 45, both versions; glossary)

Passages from the original plan that called for hacking, spying, misleading opponents, altering or destroying financial records, and “soft guerrilla” tactics are now kept in labelled boxes as rejected. In their place, the book describes lawful, open alternatives: gathering evidence through public records, journalism, courts and protected whistleblower channels; preserving knowledge through public archives, court preservation orders and compulsory licensing; and keeping financial records intact, since they protect people and are evidence of wrongdoing.
A paragraph on open civil disobedience was added: a personal choice no one should be urged to make, after protected routes, done publicly and fully documented.
The glossary definitions of “Transition” and “Reverse Strike” were rewritten to describe the current gradual, voluntary and democratic approach; the original definitions are kept beneath them, labelled.

October 26, 2026 · The Cure (web pages, both versions; downloads to follow)

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” was attributed to the U.S. Constitution in several chapters; it comes from the Declaration of Independence, and the text now says so.
Several chapters said power “shuts down” the brain’s empathy centres; research shows power measurably inhibits empathy and compassion, and that is now what the book says throughout.
The 1973 and 1979 oil shortages were described as staged by oil companies. They followed the Arab oil embargo and the Iranian Revolution, themselves deliberate uses of supply to move prices, while oil companies profited; the gasoline prices quoted have been corrected.
The claims that 95% of new businesses fail (long version) or survive (short version) within five years were wrong; U.S. government data show about half survive five years and about a third survive ten.
We wrote that genetically modified seeds are engineered to be sterile. “Terminator” seeds were patented in 1998 but never sold, after worldwide opposition; farmers are instead barred from replanting by patents, contracts and hybrid seed, as the Supreme Court confirmed in 2013.
We repeated stories of farmers sued over wind-blown pollen; the court records show suits over saved and replanted seed, and the text now gives the documented figures (more than 140 lawsuits, over $23 million).
An unsourced claim that farmers were beaten or killed for refusing genetically modified seed, and that companies used “private troops”, has been replaced with documented accounts: Monsanto’s royalty collection at South American grain ports, land violence by landowners during the soy boom, and Guatemala’s 2014 repeal of a seed law after mass protests.
We wrote that embalming is legally required and that burying one’s own dead is illegal. No state requires routine embalming; several states restrict home burial or require a funeral director, and Washington State allows burial only in cemeteries owned by organizations.
We said U.S. life expectancy was in continuing decline; it fell in 2020–21 and recovered to 78.4 years in 2023, still below other wealthy nations. Pay figures for nurses and EMTs, and the tipped minimum wage, were also corrected.
The near-extinction of the buffalo is now attributed mainly to the commercial hide trade.
Our recommendation of Gaddafi’s Green Book now carries clear cautions about its religious basis for law and Libya’s record, and sits alongside many other examples of participatory self-government.
Chapter 15 said no charges were filed against Martin Shkreli; in 2022 a federal court banned him from the pharmaceutical industry for life and ordered him to repay $64.6 million.
The book described a semi-nomadic community the author lived with as an ancient, entirely leaderless culture, with no published record to support those wider claims. It is now presented only as the author’s own experience, alongside documented examples: the San and Hadza, egalitarian foragers, and the Haudenosaunee, who governed through consensus-seeking councils.
We said there is no rent or mortgage in Cuba and that home sales are illegal. A 1960 law turned tenants into owners after some years of payments, and buying and selling homes has been legal since 2011.
We called Cuba’s health system one of the best in the world. Cuba has universal care and one of the highest ratios of doctors to population anywhere, but the system is now in severe crisis, with shortages of medicines, blackouts and doctors leaving; the pages now say both.
A general claim that oil companies cut production while spreading “running out of oil” disinformation was replaced with documented cases: open OPEC+ cuts, a 2001 Federal Trade Commission finding of firms withholding supply, internal 1990s refinery-capacity memos, and pump prices that rise faster than they fall (“rockets and feathers”).
Chapter 43 said companies cut oil production out of political or ethnic anger; the example, the 1973 oil embargo, was imposed by Arab oil-producing states, and the text now says so.
Passages from the book’s original plan for a single, rapid, coordinated transition are now kept in clearly marked boxes, labelled as superseded; those describing force, seizures or deception are marked as rejected. Nothing has been deleted.

October 25, 2026 · Documented Alternatives (Part I: early societies)

The largest Trypillia mega-site was given as 450 hectares; modern surveys put it at about 320. Settlement counts taken from Wikipedia were removed, as was an unsupported claim of "collective agriculture" and planning.
Teotihuacan’s population is now given as roughly 100,000 (estimates range from about 80,000 to 125,000), not up to 200,000. A claim that its murals show people of equal size holding hands had no source and was removed. The city is no longer called egalitarian: specialists describe strong collective institutions alongside clear status differences. A mathematical model is now described as showing that self-organized government was feasible, not that it existed.
Indus cities: instead of "houses not markedly different in size", the page now reports measured house-size inequality at Mohenjo-daro, moderate overall and falling over time in one neighbourhood (Green, Alam & Petrie, Antiquity, 2026). Mohenjo-daro’s population is given as perhaps 40,000, not up to 80,000.
San: meat from a kill belongs to the owner of the arrow, who must share it by strict rules, not simply "to the community". An unsupported claim that San egalitarianism is documented over tens of thousands of years was removed.
Tlaxcallan’s description as a republic is now presented as the leading interpretation of one research team, which other scholars dispute.
The Haudenosaunee Confederacy was dated to 1142 with six nations; most archaeologists date its founding to about 1450–1600, with five nations (the Tuscarora joined about 1722). Its influence on the U.S. Constitution is now described as debated.

October 25, 2026 · Behavioral Dynamics

The page now cites its sources (43 references) and labels its equations and phase map as illustrations, not estimated models.
We said legal reform alone rarely changes behavior. Laws can shift norms themselves; they work less well and more slowly mainly when they depart sharply from prevailing norms.
We said clear institutional signals make behavior change faster. The evidence shows they shift what people perceive as the norm, which does not always change behavior.
We said communities adopt new norms faster when they believe coordinated action can succeed. That belief predicts collective action and sustained practice, not faster norm adoption as such.
We said full acceptance of the welfare state took decades. Some programs, such as the UK’s NHS, were popular almost at once; the slow adjustment was in surrounding norms.
The kibbutz example now notes that its cooperative norms also rested on self-selection, exit costs and communal property, and that most kibbutzim later introduced differential pay.

October 23, 2026 · Democracy vs. Modern Feudalism

We said chronic homelessness rose 81% between 2013 and 2025. Using the published counts of chronically homeless individuals, it rose from 92,593 in 2013 to a record 155,750 in 2025, about 68%, and doubled from its 2016 low of 77,486. The page now gives these figures.
We said threats against federal judges "have risen sharply". The U.S. Marshals Service figures show more than 500 threats between October 2024 and early September 2025, about the same as the year before, so the page now gives the figure instead.

October 23, 2026 · Country pages: Peru and Belize (English and Spanish)

Peru: forced sterilisations were dated 1996–2000 and attributed to a UN press release that does not give the 314,000 figure. Corrected: a 2001 congressional subcommittee found that 314,605 women and 24,563 men were forcibly sterilised between 1993 and 1999, and the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women cited at least 314,000 women in its 2024 decision, now cited directly. Two unsupported claims were removed (that only about 10% gave informed consent, and that it was the largest such programme in the Americas), and the summary now says "most of them Indigenous" rather than describing all the women as Indigenous.
Peru: the page now records that Congress elected José María Balcázar as interim president in February 2026, and that Keiko Fujimori won the June 2026 runoff and took office on 28 July 2026.
Belize: we gave the total cost of the telecom nationalization as BZ$564 million (about US$282 million). The source gives about $564 million, with estimates of up to $700 million, without naming the currency, and no official total has been published; the page now says so.
Belize: the Constituency Development Fund was described as BZ$6.2 million, a figure we could not source. Replaced with allocations released in 2026 under a freedom-of-information request: $10,000 to $25,000 a month per division, more than $6 million a year.

October 23, 2026 · Country pages: Peru, Argentina, Chile and Colombia (English and Spanish)

Peru: we had said the Shining Path killed more than 69,000 people. 69,280 is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s estimate of all deaths in the 1980–2000 conflict; the Commission attributed 54% of reported deaths to the Shining Path.
Peru: the page now records that Congress removed President Dina Boluarte in October 2025 and her successor, José Jerí, in February 2026.
Peru: the summary said 315,000 forced sterilisations while the article said 314,000; the summary now matches the article.
Argentina: we wrongly said the Kirchner governments defaulted on IMF debt. Argentina repaid its entire IMF debt early, in January 2006.
Argentina: currency controls were reimposed by Macri’s own government in September 2019, not by his successor.
Argentina: 30,000 disappeared is the estimate used by human-rights organisations; official registries (CONADEP, RUVTE) document roughly 8,600–9,000 named cases and describe their counts as incomplete. The page now says both.
Chile: the pension reform passed in January 2025 (signed into law March 2025) and adds a 7% employer contribution, phased in by 2033, on top of workers’ 10%. We had the wrong year and figures.
Chile: we said it is the only country with fully privatised water. It went further than any other country; a 2022 reform limited new water rights to 30 years and prioritised human consumption, without revoking existing rights.
Chile: Julio Ponce Lerou was Pinochet’s son-in-law when SQM was privatised but divorced in 1995, and in 2025 handed his SQM stake to his daughter; Tianqi’s stake in SQM is about 22%, not 24%.
Colombia: 8.8 million displaced people outnumber the populations of only a few Latin American countries (such as Paraguay, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama and Uruguay), not most of them.
Colombia: we said no general had been held accountable for the "false positives" killings. The Special Jurisdiction for Peace has charged several retired generals with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

October 23, 2026 · Country pages: Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, Venezuela and Belize (English and Spanish)

Spain: we wrongly said the 2007 Historical Memory Law created a truth commission. It did not; Spain’s first Truth Commission was constituted on 13 May 2026 under the 2022 Democratic Memory Law.
Spain: we said polls show 51–55% support for a republic. Reputable polls diverge; the page now reports two contrasting 2020 surveys.
Spain: prosecutors shelved the Juan Carlos investigations citing not only his inviolability but also the statute of limitations, his tax regularisations and insufficient evidence.
Spain: a glossary entry for the Brazilian term "Centrão" was removed; it did not belong on the Spain page.
Mexico: the abolition of seven autonomous agencies came from a separate constitutional reform published in December 2024, not the 2024 judicial reform.
Mexico: the 42% figure covers ejido land only (all social property, including agrarian communities, is about 51%), and there are about 29,700 ejidos, not 28,000.
Ecuador: the court that replaced judges after the 2011 referendum and upheld the Chevron ruling was the National Court of Justice, which replaced the Supreme Court in 2008.
Ecuador: an unverified claim that 73% of the world’s cocaine passes through Ecuador was presented as an official figure. The page now attributes the government’s 70% claim to President Noboa and notes it is unverified.
Venezuela: the U.S. estimate that about 250 tonnes of cocaine transit Venezuela each year comes from the State Department’s 2011 narcotics report, not 2004.
Belize: Lord Ashcroft holds dual British and Belizean nationality; we had described him as a British outsider.

October 22, 2026 · The Cure (web pages, EPUB and PDF)

Chapter 10 treated a government productivity index (106.27) as if it were dollars per hour, giving "$220,480 per year" of value per employee and a 17% / 83% split between employees and employers. Both were wrong. Corrected: in 2018 the U.S. economy produced about $132,000 per employed person, the typical full-time employee was paid about $46,800, and all employees together, benefits included, received about 53% of everything produced (down from about 58% in 1970).
"Since 1970, productivity has increased roughly 200% while wages increased barely 12%" overstated the gap. Corrected to the Economic Policy Institute figures: from 1979 to 2019, productivity grew about 60% and typical workers’ pay about 16%.
The data table in chapter 10 was rebuilt with these figures, current Federal Reserve stock-ownership data for 2018 (top 1%: about 52%; next 9%: about 36%; bottom half: about 0.6%), inflation since 1970 (about 4% a year, not 3%), and the richest American’s wealth growth (it nearly doubled in a year, from $81.5 billion).
Chapter 2: CEO pay "from 1970 to 2017" corrected to 1978 to 2017, when CEO pay at large U.S. companies rose about 1,000% and typical workers’ pay about 11% after inflation; a comparison with nominal cost of living was removed because it mixed inflation-adjusted and unadjusted figures.
Jeff Bezos’s 2017 wealth gain was described as pay, and the arithmetic was wrong: $33 billion over a year is about $1,050 a second, so his wealth grew by a median Amazon employee’s yearly pay about every 27 seconds, not every nine or twenty. The text now also notes that most of the gain was share value rather than pay.
After the Soviet Union ended, religion "resurged almost undiminished" was overstated. Corrected: it revived strongly; in Russia, Orthodox identification rose from 37% in 1991 to 71% in 2015 (Pew Research Center).
Employers claiming employees’ inventions "made at home" now reads "in many contracts", noting that several U.S. states, including California, limit such claims.
Inequality "more extreme than medieval Europe" changed to "rivals, and by some measures exceeds", since historical estimates are uncertain.
The Soviet Union emerged from "a pre-Capitalist traditional Feudal environment" corrected to "a largely agrarian, semi-feudal environment in which capitalism had barely taken root" (serfdom ended in 1861).
The brain-stimulation experiments described in chapter 39 used rats, not mice; the spread of the drug Krokodil in Russia is dated to the early 2010s rather than described as current.
Wealth figures for 1989 to 2018 ("the bottom 50% lost $900 billion") came from an earlier release of Federal Reserve data that has since been revised; the current data no longer shows that loss. Updated to 1989–2026: after inflation, the top 1% of households gained about $48 trillion and the bottom 50% about $2.4 trillion, roughly $36 million versus $36,000 per household.
Kibbutz members were said to make up "about 15% of Israel’s high achievers", including "the Nobel Prize laureates". No source could be found for that combined figure. Replaced with documented figures: in 1967, when kibbutz members were about 3% of Israelis, they held 15% of Knesset seats; they provided around a quarter of army officers and farmed about a third of the agricultural land; one Nobel laureate, Arieh Warshel, grew up on a kibbutz (Israel Studies Review, 2026; MERIP, 1983).
Chapter 29 said "the compassion circuitry in the brain shuts down" and that hierarchy is "incompatible with the human psyche and nervous system". Research shows a measurable inhibition, not a shutdown. Corrected: power inhibits compassion and empathy to a measurable degree; even a small or momentary sense of power has this effect in experiments; hierarchy therefore tends to weaken the better parts of human potential and amplify the destructive ones, which is why it is incompatible with an optimally empowering society of thriving, empowered people.
A rhetorical comparison with Hitler in chapter 7 was replaced: the system is now described as having "a reach into ordinary lives that the dictators of any era could only have envied."
Marx did not try to eliminate religion; he called it "the opium of the people" (not "opiate") and expected it to fade. Suppression came later, under governments that claimed his name. Corrected in chapters 5, 24 and 29 and in the short version.

October 20, 2026 · The Cure (web pages, EPUB and PDF)

A CEO "made in twenty seconds" what a median employee earns in a year. The correct figure, for Weight Watchers in 2017, is about twenty minutes.
Brazil: "the vast majority of people live in favelas" was wrong. The 2022 census counted some 16 million people, about 8% of the population.
An unsourced figure for CEO pay in 1916 was replaced with the documented 1965 figure (about 20 times a typical worker’s pay).
A survey of Americans’ beliefs about wealth was misdated. It was conducted in 2005 and published in 2011 (Norton and Ariely).
The statement that "nobody was charged" over a drug-price increase was out of date. In 2022 a federal court banned the executive from the pharmaceutical industry for life and ordered him to repay $64.6 million.

October 20, 2026 · Country pages: Brazil and Taiwan

Brazil is the world’s fifth-largest country by area but seventh by population, not fifth by both.
A distance comparison was wrong: Manaus to Porto Alegre is farther than Lisbon to Warsaw, not Lisbon to Moscow.
South Africa joined BRICS in 2010; it was not a founding member.
Brazil’s largest favelas each house tens of thousands of people, not hundreds of thousands.
The Landless Workers Movement’s view that land occupation is grounded in the constitution’s "social function" clause is now described as the movement’s claim, since it is legally contested.
Taiwan: "justice housing" corrected to social housing; air pollution located in central and southern Taiwan; the 2017 same-sex marriage ruling attributed to the Council of Grand Justices (now the Constitutional Court).

October 20, 2026 · Research pages

A notice now states on each original research paper that it has not yet completed external peer review.
Post-Currency Foundations said its framework "demonstrates" large-scale coordination; it now says it shows this under its stated assumptions.
The attractor-theory paper said neuroscience "demonstrates that power dampens the mirror neuron system". It now says, more precisely, that experiments found feeling powerful reduces motor resonance and perspective-taking.

October 17, 2026 · Culture and the Transition

The site said the United States and several other countries have the highest individualism scores (Hofstede). That was true of the classic data only. After the October 2023 revision, the U.S. score is about 60 (roughly 24th), and the page now says so and explains that the change mainly reflects the method.

October 16, 2026 · Democracy vs. Modern Feudalism

A full evidence review (252 sources) corrected several claims, among them: eminent domain moved from the Third to the Fifth Amendment; the First Amendment described as binding government only; "none of the checks and balances have been able to stop this" changed to "the checks are working, but unevenly, slowly, and often after the harm is done"; habeas corpus described as worked around rather than "effectively nullified"; and a claim about polling-place closures replaced with the documented post-2013 closures.

October 13, 2026 · Q&A, Post-Currency Foundations and Coordinated Action

Q&A answers about laziness, open-source software and trade were corrected after review; model results are now stated conditionally; equations in Post-Currency Foundations were fixed; mismatched citation links in Coordinated Action were corrected in the page, EPUB and PDF.