Positional advantages are, by definition, unscalable. That is, if all X does is improve your position relative to others, then everyone doing X wont improve everyone’s position relative to others. That’s a bit abstract, so consider some examples. Once upon a time, I went to an orientation for college. When incoming students asked existing students… Continue reading The error almost everyone makes about individual economic advancement
Author: Matt Bruenig
Why Republicans talk about hardship of parents and grandparents
Chris Hayes and Kevin Drum have been commenting on the odd phenomenon of Republican politicians constantly invoking the hardship of their parents and grandparents. Almost without fail, GOP politicians reach back as far as they need to in their family history to find some story about someone coming from humble beginnings and doing better for… Continue reading Why Republicans talk about hardship of parents and grandparents
Voters do not know very much
Much has been said of Romney’s basic lack of concern about facts in this campaign. All campaigns bend facts, misrepresent things, and occasionally lie, but few do so with the boldness of Romney. After picking Paul Ryan, Romney’s campaign, in a Rove-esque maneuver, blitzed Obama over Medicare. The campaign claimed Obama took money from Medicare… Continue reading Voters do not know very much
Hurricane evacuations and the capability approach
With Hurricane Isaac bearing down on the gulf coast, news outlets are interviewing non-evacuating residents in the path of the storm. Residents do not evacuate for a diversity of reasons, but one prominent reason is that many do not have the means: not enough money and nowhere else to go. We’ve seen this phenomenon before… Continue reading Hurricane evacuations and the capability approach
Corporations are primarily intellectual property rentiers
Gavin Mueller has a great article in the summer issue of Jacobin Magazine about piracy, and at one point drops this jaw-dropping statistic: “Intellectual property makes up 80 percent of the net worth of US corporations and 60 percent of their exports.” I ran the statistic down and found that it apparently originated from an… Continue reading Corporations are primarily intellectual property rentiers