More than anything else, the unique dynamic surrounding money creates confusion in people. Whatever one thinks of Marx generally, his sociological theory of commodity fetishism seems true. In an economy driven by money and commodities, it is easy to forget the actual relationships that underlie production and consumption. For instance, people seem to think that… Continue reading Social Security and confusion about savings
Why do poor kids do worse in school?
For one reason or another, poor kids do worse in school than rich kids. Consider for instance this breakdown of SAT scores divided by parental income: This graph tells us two important things. First, poor kids do indeed do worse on the main college admissions exam. Second, differential enrollment rates in college probably have to… Continue reading Why do poor kids do worse in school?
More data on the student debt debate
In my previous post, I argued that it was misleading to represent the issues of recent college graduates (e.g. student debt) as the issues of the younger generation. I pieced together some rough data from the Census and the National Center for Education Statistics that tended to show that the majority of youth are not… Continue reading More data on the student debt debate
Stop saying “the younger generation” when referring to recent graduates
I hate to beat a dead horse on student debt, but I keep seeing unchecked fallacy after unchecked fallacy filling the blogs and news copy. In one prevalent fallacy, writers and commentators refer to college graduates as “the younger generation” or something similar. That is, they cast student debt as a generational issue affecting the… Continue reading Stop saying “the younger generation” when referring to recent graduates
Reduce inequality by reducing inequality
Absent magical accounting techniques, the only way to reduce inequality is to transfer income and wealth from those who have more of it to those who have less of it. There are reasonable disagreements about how best to do that, but one way or another, it has to be done. Despite this reality, armies of… Continue reading Reduce inequality by reducing inequality