Quantcast
Channel: inequality – Notes on a Theory…
Browsing all 31 articles
Browse latest View live

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Why People Don’t Rebel: Status by Association

One might assume that [luxury hotel] workers’ admired guests’ wealth because they identified with guests or aspired to be rich themselves.  In my twelve months in both hotels, however, I spoke with...

View Article



Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The Submerged State and the Production of Inequality

Well beyond its impact on individuals and families, the submerged state exacerbates economic inequality by promoting some entire sectors of the economy over others, at government expense.  In...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

…How some people are made to do the harshest work for the least reward

One disclaimer ought to be entered at the outset.  We have already suggest that relief giving is partly designed to enforce work.  Our argument, however, is not against work.  We take it for granted...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

No, Jeb Bush, Schools are not Like Milk

At the GOP convention, Jeb Bush argued in favor of voucher and school choice using the frame of civil rights.  Bush, brother of failed president and education reformer George W. Bush, went further,...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

You Can’t Decry Conflict and Seek Justice

[Updated below] Melissa Harris Perry has a new piece reflecting on the recently concluded successful Chicago Teachers Union strike.  Her point – the battle between “reformers” and “teachers” was...

View Article


Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The Economics-Politics Distinction: The Shift from the Welfare to the...

If “economics” is isolated from other aspects of social life, then the criterion for policymakers becomes the simple one of efficiency. Expenditure, and government policy generally, is to be viewed in...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Catch 22 and the Death Penalty: Shredding Due Process to Punish the Abused

Via Sentencing Law and Policy, Justice Sotomayor dissented (pdf) from a denial of review for a death penalty case, and her opinion illustrated two important points. Petitioner Benny Lee Hodge was...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

How Means Testing Exploits Well Intentioned Liberals

Means testing of Social Security or Medicare is a bad idea.  It doesn’t generally save that much money and it undermines the very logic of social insurance–universal coverage paid for by dedicated...

View Article


Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Dirty Hippies, Inequality, and the Minnesota Model

The great Mark Price has a piece in the Guardian today, Wealth inequality will keep growing unless workers demand better, that gets to the heart of the problem with our broken economy’s failure to...

View Article


Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Predistribution, Public Opinion and Unilateral Executive Action

A market, which exists, unlike “the market” which does not. (St Quinton Saturday Market by M Hobbs)Matt Bruenig has a good post on predistribution, “measures governments take to reduce or eliminate...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Why Does the Market Not Serve the Interests of Human Beings?

So people are casting about for the means to protect themselves against that insecurity. They are looking for a way to not only afford decent housing but to buy the house in the neighborhood that feeds...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Gender, Class and Economic Fairness: Blaming Voters is a Cop Out

Laura Bassett and Dave Jamieson have a piece on Democratic strategy, Minimum Wage, Sick Leave Rebranded As Women’s Issues To Pressure GOP that I find troubling (the strategy, not the piece). Pelosi and...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Independence Day

My hope for Independence Day is that we can start with the small step of calling this day Independence Day, not Fourth of July. It strikes me how odd it is to refer to the day by its date. I suspect...

View Article


Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Why Won’t You Rubes Get Excited About Cory Booker

By David Shankbone (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons [Update below. 8-28-13] LEAVE CORY BOOKER ALOOOOOOOONE!!!! Molly Ball is not impressed with “liberal” critics of Cory Booker. (And Paul...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Anderson on Democratic Equality

There must be a better way [than luck egalitarianism] to conceive of the point of equality. To do so it is helpful to recall how egalitarian political movements have historically conceived of their...

View Article


Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Who knew the reason libertarianism was so noxious was plagiarism?

For reasons that are somewhat baffling, the coverage of Senator Rand Paul’s plagiarism in speeches and writings got wall-to-wall coverage for some time, although it has now died down. I’m not a fan of...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

A society that worships money is a society in peril

The Birmingham superintendent puts it this way. “The Detroit schools need more money. The solution is not to take it from Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills.” And, again, one wonders where else one would...

View Article


Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Inequality is a Problem: There is Too Little

Talk about inequality is in the air. Everyone seems to agree it’s a problem, although a lot of people seem to offering the same old policy proposals to address it. It’s almost as if they are simply...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Top Posts for 2013

Here they are–the top posts, based on views, for 2013. 1. Blaming Consumers is a Cop Out This is the no contest the most read piece this year, also the most comments for a post.  It included a shout...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

I am outraged at David Brooks’ continuing execution of the War on Drugs

[Updated below] [If you read my piece entitled I’m so outraged at Kim Kardashian for maintaining the 5th Fleet in a human rights violating autocracy, some of this may be familiar.] Someone who doesn’t...

View Article
Browsing all 31 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images