For my money, P.J. Proudhon is still history’s greatest critic of property theories. His writing is also wildly entertaining because it is extremely angry and vitriolic. In his magnum opus —
Author: Matt Bruenig
The radical Rawls
Martin O’Neill and Thad Williamson had an article in the Boston Review outlining some of the radical components of Rawls’ philosophy. The short thesis is: “to treat Rawls simply as a defender of Democratic Party liberalism and the welfare state—as he is widely regarded—is to misread him.” The authors then go on to explain Rawls… Continue reading The radical Rawls
I am getting fed up personally paying the incomes of everyone else
So we could have a set of distributive institutions where I owned all of the social product. That’s conceivable. As it turns out, we do not have that set of distributive institutions. We have this other cocktail of things which is kind of pieced together haphazardly: some market wages, some transfers, some in-kind public benefits,… Continue reading I am getting fed up personally paying the incomes of everyone else
It’s the distribution, stupid
Regular readers know by now that I am a big proponent of the idea that poor people are poor because they do not have enough money. This radical theory causes me to support such ideas as distributing enough money to poor people so that they are no longer poor. It seems simple — and is… Continue reading It’s the distribution, stupid
Unemployment still a huge problem
The so-called fiscal cliff has been dominating the political economics coverage of late. It is perhaps an exciting story from a politicking perspective, but fairly boring in just about every other respect. The conventional wisdom in an economy still reeling from a recession like this one is to cancel all the scheduled cuts and tax… Continue reading Unemployment still a huge problem