Here Come the Idiots

One of the things I am not looking forward to in the coming elections are people who become sudden experts on the Nordic Model and the social democratic history of the Nordic countries. Partisans of various stripes, uninterested in understanding how the Nordic countries actually developed, will mobilize their considerable googling skills to conclude whatever… Continue reading Here Come the Idiots

Full Employment and Welfare

Liberal pundits really like to talk about reducing welfare expenditures. Birth control is touted as good because it will reduce welfare expenditure on Medicaid and programs for poor families with children (Kristof, Rampell). Increasing the minimum wage is often touted as good because it will reduce welfare expenditure on Medicaid and food stamps. I understand… Continue reading Full Employment and Welfare

The Muddled Globalization Debate

Travel journalist Paul Theroux wrote a piece in the New York Times about some of the negative effects of globalization on US workers. Generally I advise never listening to travel journalists opine on political economic questions for the obvious reason that they are not well-equipped to do so (going somewhere to visit does not make you an… Continue reading The Muddled Globalization Debate

The Argument for Free College

In Dissent, I explained the case against free college. The short of it is that, because of who attends college and what kind of colleges they attend, free college is simply not an egalitarian benefit. To me, that calls into question the entire benefit category. What precisely is the point of subsidizing goods that poor… Continue reading The Argument for Free College