In my prior post, I pointed out that capital income is paid to non-productive people who don’t, under a labor-desert theory of entitlement, deserve it. In response to this explanation, some commenters have said that in fact capitalists do work in some way. It’s not that they just have capital and then income flows to… Continue reading “Have I Myself Not Worked?”
Author: Matt Bruenig
Vampire Capital
It bothers me as a general matter that so much of our discourse about the economy can proceed as if capitalism distributes things according to variations in work and contribution, or in short desert. It bothers me both because it is wrong and also because it is clearly wrong in ways that have been known… Continue reading Vampire Capital
Wealth Inequality and Student Debt
It’s commonplace for some to note that there are racial and class disparities in student debt levels and then hastily conclude that the cost of college is a cause of wealth inequality. These analyses strike me as deeply confused. Consider the following example. Scenario One: Non-Free + Price Discrimination In the status quo, our college… Continue reading Wealth Inequality and Student Debt
Two Notions of Liberty
At the risk of flattering Isaiah Berlin, who I believe to be a very overrated figure, it is important in debates about liberty to not muddle two different concepts. Liberty in the “negative” sense refers to essentially non-interference. Previously, I have spent a lot of time pointing out that this sense of liberty is incompatible… Continue reading Two Notions of Liberty
A Note On Libertarian Anti-Paternalism
Whenever libertarians talk about the evils of liberty-restricting paternalism, I can’t help but recall that the endorsement of paternalism is the only plausible way their theory of laissez-faire property is supposed to get off the ground in the first place. As Nozick notes, the appropriation of property is inherently liberty-destroying: It will be implausible to… Continue reading A Note On Libertarian Anti-Paternalism