One of the Education Reform Movement’s most touted innovations is the implementation of value-added methods of teacher evaluations. Under these methods, teachers are not evaluated by the absolute skill level of their students on standardized tests; instead, they are evaluated by how much their students improve during their time under that teacher. This all sounds… Continue reading Meaningless measurements remain meaningless
People in the US already pay flat taxes
I have been desperately trying to find data on the effect state and local taxes have on the progressivity of taxes in the United States. I wrote a post a few days ago talking about how to think about the tax system, but I only included data on federal taxes. When only counting federal taxes,… Continue reading People in the US already pay flat taxes
Corporate executives are not just highly paid workers
Matthew Yglesias floated a claim today about the nature of the modern economy that I have seen pop up from time to time: That’s not just to make the banal point that someone like a Jeffrey Immelt does in fact do work, it’s to highlight the point that the concept of a class struggle between… Continue reading Corporate executives are not just highly paid workers
Regulations are not the problem, but an easy mistake to make
So, small businesses do not actually rank government regulations as that big of a problem for them. They are way more concerned about the state of the economy, despite what conservatives often say. With that said, there are still some who do complain about regulations, and I am sure some of them are genuine in… Continue reading Regulations are not the problem, but an easy mistake to make
How do we fix the deficit? End the wars, tax the rich! — And do some other things too!
Along with taxes, discussions around the deficit are made far more confusing than they really need to be. If we want to fix the long-term deficit, there are of course hundreds of different solutions. Despite having the best solutions on the deficit, those on the left are constantly depicted as totally delusional and non-responsive to… Continue reading How do we fix the deficit? End the wars, tax the rich! — And do some other things too!