Over at Twitter, Matt Yglesias shared my last post alongside the observation that it is weird that one of the biggest proponents of the welfare state in the policy game is “officially a socialist for Twitter feud purposes.” In the spirit of bringing the old blogging back, I figured I’d use it as a peg… Continue reading Socialism and the Welfare State
The Private Property and Personal Property Distinction
In beginner socialist circles, you see a strangely large amount of discussion about the difference between private property and personal property. This seems to be in significant part because certain kinds of people are partial to rhetoric like “abolish private property,” which they then need to walk back because that’s not actually what they want… Continue reading The Private Property and Personal Property Distinction
Contracting Covid Is Like Getting an 84% Efficacy Vaccine
The discourse is ablaze with commentary about the CDC’s recommendation to temporarily halt the use of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. The reason for the recommendation is that six women developed a rare blood-clotting disease shortly after receiving the vaccine. The recommendation does not apply to the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, which use a different mechanism to… Continue reading Contracting Covid Is Like Getting an 84% Efficacy Vaccine
Democrats Who Disenfranchise
Two election process topics have dominated the discourse in the last couple of months. The first is HR1, a Democratic initiative that would, among other things, expand same-day voter registration, automatic voter registration, vote-by-mail and and early voting. The second is the Georgia voting law, a Republican initiative that would, among other things, make it harder to… Continue reading Democrats Who Disenfranchise
Is Meritocracy Real?
Over at Slow Boring, Matt Yglesias argues that meritocracy is real but bad. Yglesias contrasts his take with the conventional position that is presented as anti-meritocracy but actually just argues that we don’t live in a meritocracy. Here’s Yglesias: And if you talk to people with a curious and open mind, you’ll pretty quickly find out that… Continue reading Is Meritocracy Real?