I had 2 posts over at Demos’ Policy Shop this week. Here is a rundown with links: False Concerns for the Poor. Excerpt: Finally, this concern trolling is such an empty game ultimately. The reality is that these workers are living terrible lives. Many of their kids, due to the horrors of poverty, are on… Continue reading Policy Shop Weekly Digest: Fast Food Strikes, Free Higher Education
Author: Matt Bruenig
Walmart and Jobs: Stop
Salon has an article today about Walmart. At one point, it drops into the very rote and boring line that Walmart kills 1.4 retail jobs for every 1 retail job it creates. This line comes from a Neumark et al study called “The Effects of Wal-Mart on Local Labor Markets.” Technically, this is not an… Continue reading Walmart and Jobs: Stop
Policy Shop Weekly Digest: Poverty, Social Mobility, Higher Education
I had 3 posts over at Demos’ Policy Shop this week. Here is a rundown with links: Poverty is Poison. Excerpt: The lead analogy is a good one for purposes of policy construction. In response to learning that lead was messing up kids brains, we sought to eliminate exposure to it, e.g. by banning leaded… Continue reading Policy Shop Weekly Digest: Poverty, Social Mobility, Higher Education
Student debt and wealth and here we go again
Robin Hiltonsmith has a report at Demos called “At What Cost?” It purports to show the lifetime wealth hit a median couple graduating from public college will face due to student debt. The report has a number of defects, a few of which I detail below. 1. The debt assumption is 50 percent higher than… Continue reading Student debt and wealth and here we go again
How many birth-right privileges should we have?
Friend of the blog David Callahan and I have been going back and forth over at Demos about social mobility and equal opportunity. It started when Callahan wrote a post noting that kids born near the top of the income distribution wind up, on average, lower than their parents in the income distribution. He represented… Continue reading How many birth-right privileges should we have?