Anyone residing on the left has heard it many times before. We shouldn’t reform our distributive institutions to achieve our distributive goals; instead, we should keep the present distributive institutions in place and try through individual charity to achieve what we want. That is, don’t tax the rich and feed the poor. Let the rich… Continue reading Instead, how about you rely on charity to achieve your distributive goals?
Author: Matt Bruenig
What is the actual cost of attending college?
Evan Soltas has a good piece in Bloomberg on the popular misconception that college costs are soaring. The problem he addresses is that the headline number for the price of college is not actually what students pay. Colleges use price discrimination which means that they charge students from wealthier families more than those from poorer… Continue reading What is the actual cost of attending college?
Unions and redistribution
Last week, Demos released a study that proposed raising wages for workers at big box retailers. According to the study, establishing a $25,000 wage floor at big box retailers would cost big box retailers $20.8 billion per year. If that additional cost were made up through price increases alone, it would amount to a 1%… Continue reading Unions and redistribution
Proudhon hilariously slamming Say
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 —
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