If you’ve read any think pieces about higher education recently, you are familiar with the accepted narrative by now. Back in the day — which usually means the 1970s or thereabouts — college was accessible to all and therefore an engine of social mobility and egalitarianism. But now things have changed. Higher tuition, student debt,… Continue reading Higher education is more class diverse than it used to be
Author: Matt Bruenig
Short summary: the federal debt is not a generational issue
The right-wing claims that increasing the federal debt steals from the future generation. This is wrong. First, the federal debt never needs to be repaid, only the interest on the federal debt. Second, most of the federal debt is held by Americans. When the future generation pays money towards that debt, they will be paying… Continue reading Short summary: the federal debt is not a generational issue
Latest Fed report on student debt
The Federal Reserve released another report on household debt in the past week or so. The report’s detailing of student debt trends has received considerable attention, including from the New York Times. Since our society loves to tell this hilarious story about our institutions of higher education being factories of egalitarianism and social mobility, this… Continue reading Latest Fed report on student debt
Yglesias and Ackerman in violent internet fight
Matt Yglesias had a post about left economic mistakes a few days ago. I responded in turn, focusing only on how it is completely legitimate to be worried about productivity-enhancing layoffs that happen within a social structure that does little to ensure those laid off continue to do well. I argued that Yglesias hastily concluded… Continue reading Yglesias and Ackerman in violent internet fight
Yglesias on left economic mistakes
Matt Yglesias has a post today explaining that the only way to increase someone’s real income is by decreasing someone else’s real income. He rightly points out that some on the left are confused about this. They tend to think about jacking up wages only in terms of the workers who got a higher wage… Continue reading Yglesias on left economic mistakes