Liberal pundits really like to talk about reducing welfare expenditures. Birth control is touted as good because it will reduce welfare expenditure on Medicaid and programs for poor families with children (Kristof, Rampell). Increasing the minimum wage is often touted as good because it will reduce welfare expenditure on Medicaid and food stamps. I understand… Continue reading Full Employment and Welfare
Author: Matt Bruenig
The Muddled Globalization Debate
Travel journalist Paul Theroux wrote a piece in the New York Times about some of the negative effects of globalization on US workers. Generally I advise never listening to travel journalists opine on political economic questions for the obvious reason that they are not well-equipped to do so (going somewhere to visit does not make you an… Continue reading The Muddled Globalization Debate
The Argument for Free College
In Dissent, I explained the case against free college. The short of it is that, because of who attends college and what kind of colleges they attend, free college is simply not an egalitarian benefit. To me, that calls into question the entire benefit category. What precisely is the point of subsidizing goods that poor… Continue reading The Argument for Free College
Can you sustain an economic philosophy solely by begging the question?
This piece by David S. D’Amato was just brought to my attention. It is made in response to a post I wrote earlier in which I asked why we should have property at all if it is indeed a liberty-infringing institution, like libertarian Matt Zwolinski concedes. Here is a run down of the problems with… Continue reading Can you sustain an economic philosophy solely by begging the question?
Capitalism is coercive and creates patterns of deprivation, as explained by libertarian blockquotes
I have a piece in The Washington Post that argues for a Universal Basic Income. The piece is part of a general UBI forum with lots of participants. I was solicited to provide a left-of-center perspective, and so that’s what I did. The piece identifies two problems inherent in capitalist economic systems — employer coercion… Continue reading Capitalism is coercive and creates patterns of deprivation, as explained by libertarian blockquotes