I am reading through the latest Jacobin release right now. In it, Chris Maisano has a piece on student debt titled “The Soul of Student Debt.” The basic gist of the piece is that charging for college forces students to make economic calculations about their degree and future career. That is, students have to pick… Continue reading Chris Maisano on student debt
Author: Matt Bruenig
The rich-poor education gap in the NY Times
The New York Times had a long Sunday piece on the rising rich-poor gap in higher education. The separate infographic lays out the basic story well: all classes are attending and graduating college at higher rates, but the rich are leaping far ahead. The latest data show that only 29 percent of poor kids enroll… Continue reading The rich-poor education gap in the NY Times
My top five posts in 2012
What follows is a list of my top five posts from 2012, as measured by pageviews. Popular posts are not necessarily the best posts, but I think most of these are pretty good on the merits as well. The hidden gem in Romney’s disaster speech Piracy really costs the economy nothing The strange and scary… Continue reading My top five posts in 2012
Cash transfers and ideology
A recent article in the Atlantic details an anti-poverty program recently designed by four graduate students. The program is designed to funnel cash as efficiently as possible to poor people in Kenya. If the Atlantic article is to be believed, its initial results are promising. This comes as no particular surprise for me: I have… Continue reading Cash transfers and ideology
Fun 1950s capitalist propaganda
The above video is one you see excerpted quite a bit in films and television when points about capitalism or the American economic system are being made. It is a fascinating film on many fronts, but two stand out for me. First, bits of it are completely vacuous. It is one thing to provide arguments… Continue reading Fun 1950s capitalist propaganda