One interesting and behind-the-scenes strategy of American conservatives is to starve the beast. Under the Starve the Beast strategy, conservatives embed themselves into government and cut taxes as much as possible whether they can offset the tax cuts or not. The usually articulated goal of this strategy is to force the United States government to… Continue reading A quick note on starving the beast
Category: Class
Unemployment is really painful
Binyamin Appelbaum at the New York Times compiled a substantial amount of research on the effects of unemployment. Unemployed persons tend to make far less once they regain employment, suffer negative health effects, lose their skills, and find it increasingly difficult to regain employment at all. I surveyed a variety of similar studies not too… Continue reading Unemployment is really painful
The 1% captured 93% of income gains in 2010
Mike Konczal has a post about the updated Piketty-Saez data on the distribution of income in the United States. According to the Piketty-Saez estimates, the top 1% of income-earners captured 93% of income gains in 2010. In more simple terms, 93% of the extra income generated by economic growth in 2010 went to the top… Continue reading The 1% captured 93% of income gains in 2010
Perhaps class consciousness exists after all
Leftists of all stripes have historically seized upon a romanticized notion of class consciousness. Campaigners, theorists, and supporters talk about the working class as having unified interests and a consciousness that tends towards resistance of bosses and the wealthy. Identity politics of various sort smashed through this simplistic notion on the left. Identitarians pointed out… Continue reading Perhaps class consciousness exists after all
Some federal employees have higher incomes than private sector counterparts
During the height of the recession, right-wingers tried with some success to make a big deal out of public sector compensation. The depressed economy led to lower government revenues and thus deficits. Conservatives seized the moment to pretend that the deficits were really caused by sky-high public employee compensation. While that claim was obviously false,… Continue reading Some federal employees have higher incomes than private sector counterparts