Category: Philosophy

Evan Soltas asked a question on Twitter regarding whether in-kind benefits (things like government-provided health insurance and food stamps) are better than cash benefits. There are all sorts of arguments about this. Konczal even tried his hand a general theory of this question a while back, which met mixed reception. I think this question tends… Continue reading A way to think about in-kind benefits and cash transfers

Occasionally I’ve weighed in here on the process versus substance debate, generally on the side of substance. My partiality towards substance is not based simply on some assessment that it is more important than process. It’s more that, after years of effort trying to work on theories of process, it became clear that process was… Continue reading On process and scarcity

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

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

Household labor refers to things like cooking dinner, cleaning the floor, doing laundry, and so on. Historically, it has generated all sorts of gendered oppression. Volumes and volumes have been written on the gendered issues involved in household labor; so I wont expound further here. Instead, I want to bracket the gendered stuff and talk… Continue reading Household labor: the least alienating of all