College and the Dangerous Myth of Merit
If we’re not careful, our effort to dismantle white supremacy will founder on the rocks of our unacknowledged class system.
Category: Social Safety Net
Hillbilly Effigy: Whitewashing Poverty
Hillbilly Elegy is as artistically interesting as an after school special, introducing the audience to the virtues of doing your homework and saying “no” to drugs.
Amazon’s New Homeless Shelter
A corporate homeless shelter is not a feel-good moment. It’s a warning.
West Virginia’s Bargain With The Devil
Post-election interviews with Mountain State voters were painful, not worth a link. It feels terrible to resent impoverished, struggling people. Enormous rhetorical energy has been invested in efforts to lay some defensible rationale over West Virginians’ abhorrent political choices. The reality is cruel, ugly and frightening.
Andrew Yang is Running for President
Andrew Yang is a model of the new capitalist, a breed of pragmatic business professionals thrilled by the potential of markets, yet keenly conscious of market limitations. Tech professionals like Yang are just beginning to exercise their political leverage.
Democrats Love a Jobs Guarantee. That Figures
Here’s how this program would actually work, once it’s been ground into political sausage.
Milton Friedman makes the case for a basic income
Fifty years later, this explanation of the case for a basic income laid out by Milton Friedman is more relevant than ever. Friedman was describing his plan for a negative income tax, a plan actually introduced and promoted by Nixon, but the skeleton of that case applies to just about any system of universal needs-based support. Also interesting in this clip is the quality of the interaction. Can you imagine any major conservative media figure of William Buckley’s profile engaging in such a smart, thoughtful interaction on a complex subject today?
Socialism for white people
Election 2016 has prompted a wave of head-scratching on the left. Why would economically struggling blue collar voters reject a party that offers to expand public safety net programs? The answer is simple – they don’t want these programs. Working class white voters are not interested in the public safety net. They want to restore their access to an older safety net, one much more generous, dignified, and stable than the public system – the one I and my neighbors still enjoy.