Imagine watching a man try unsuccessfully to unlock a door for 20 minutes. He keeps putting the same key into the keyhole and turning, but to no avail. Then imagine standing behind him are a number of people who keep telling him that his key obviously does not work, and that he should try another… Continue reading On Wendy Kopp, poverty pimp
Co-ops can decrease inequality
Sara Horowitz wrote in favor of co-ops and mutualist enterprises at the Atlantic today. The thrust of her post is that co-ops can replace and improve upon current models of promoting the social good. In a sort of rebuttal, Matt Yglesias argues that increasing co-ops would reduce growth and increase inequality, something that he admits… Continue reading Co-ops can decrease inequality
Education reform will not fix poverty or inequality
As regular readers know by now, I am fairly skeptical of the Education Reform Movement. I am not convinced that the reforms advocated by this well-funded movement will actually work because I suspect that the real problem is economic inequality, not bad schools or bad teachers. But even if one believed that the policies pushed… Continue reading Education reform will not fix poverty or inequality
Left-neoliberalism in a nutshell
I use the phrase left-neoliberal from time to time but never bother explaining it. Given that my posts explaining different philosophical approaches to economic and political issues have proven more popular than I expected, I figure that readers might appreciate a brief post on the details of left-neoliberalism. Like the rest of the left, left-neoliberals… Continue reading Left-neoliberalism in a nutshell
On procedural and distributive justice (part 2/2)
Continued from part one. Distributive Justice Unlike procedural justice, distributive justice concerns itself with the distribution of goods within society, not the process of how those goods are distributed. Like procedural justice, distributive justice has right-wing and left-wing forms. On the right, distributive justice primarily takes the form of desert theory: society ought to be… Continue reading On procedural and distributive justice (part 2/2)