Wealth Distribution
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Why Broad Consensus Is a Phantom
An article in Salon this morning about polling that shows how most Americans are to the left even of positions taken by the mainstream Democrats: With such a profoundly self-contradictory practice, it should not surprise us that the poll was even more misleading than Pareene described. Polarization in some sense is real — and yet also partial,
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Peter Buffet, Reza Aslan, Mark Leibovich, etc.
What we have is a crisis of imagination. Albert Einstein said that you cannot solve a problem with the same mind-set that created it. Foundation dollars should be the best “risk capital” out there. There are people working hard at showing examples of other ways to live in a functioning society that truly creates greater prosperity for
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Watching Brazil
From "The Social Awakening in Brazil" in the NYT today: For all of Brazil’s achievements over the past few decades — a stronger economy, democratic elections, more money and attention directed toward the needs of the poor — there is still a huge gap between the promises of Brazil’s ruling leftist politicians and the harsh
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Cultural Hegemony
There was a time way back when–in the seventies–when I made an attempt to grapple with the kind of neo-Marxist thought for which the Frankfurt School was typical. I didn't get far, because while parts of it interested me, particularly its critique, it didn't deliver enough value for me to justify the time and effort
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Wage Discipline
Why are wages are flat, unemployment high, and inflation stable despite the economic recovery? Because it benefits the so-called investor or rentier class: But capitalists are always fighting a two-front war in democracies, against workers and against their representatives in the government, who might begin to change the social framework to give workers more bargaining
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Growth Idolaltry
Just saw Douthat's Sunday column on the causes of inequality, so I thought I'd comment on it in the light of my last post. Here's his set up: The latest census figures show the gap between the wealthiest Americans and everybody else widening — rather than shrinking, as some economists expected — during the crash
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Vanishing Middle
Under the current regime, we are regressing to 1929. Believe that this a conscious strategy goal of key factions within the GOP. And we are allowing it because of the traditional values smokescreen that the architects of this plan are hiding behind. This from Tom Paine: The share of national income going to wages and