The commentary is still running on Greg Mankiw’s joke of a paper “Defending the One Percent.” Due to Mankiw’s nominal endorsement of a Just Deserts economic justice philosophy, a number of the posts have engaged Mankiw on the philosophical level (most recently Noah Smith). I wrote two myself. (I, II). Seeing as the bulk of… Continue reading Intro to distributive justice
Author: Matt Bruenig
Policy Shop: SCOTUS and the Uncertain Future of Organized Labor
New post at Policy Shop. Excerpt: This has been a blockbuster week for the Supreme Court to say the least. With DOMA, Proposition 8, Title VII, and affirmative action decisions dominating the coverage, few have taken note of the Supreme Court’s move on Monday to grant review to a set of cases that could strike… Continue reading Policy Shop: SCOTUS and the Uncertain Future of Organized Labor
Policy Shop: Recalling a False Golden Age of College Accessibility
New post at Policy Shop. Excerpt: Krugman’s response falls into the trap of imagining a past world I sarcastically call the Golden Era of College Accessibility. He is certainly not the only one who has bought into this narrative. Figures all over the left especially have piled on to the idea that there was a… Continue reading Policy Shop: Recalling a False Golden Age of College Accessibility
On student fetishism
Freddie has a good post today about the nature of students and education. The main point is that students resist education, and that’s just generally the case. We talk about students as if they are eager to learn or something and that only obstruction or other kinds of impediments stand in their way. It’s a… Continue reading On student fetishism
A circularity in Just Deserts
I had a post at Demos today about Greg Mankiw’s weak at best understanding and adherence to a Just Deserts theory. The main focus of the post was not to attack Just Deserts theory, but to actually work out what it entails. The thesis is that Just Deserts does not entail the kind of distribution… Continue reading A circularity in Just Deserts