Often, it’s said that welfare states are dizzyingly complicated. So many programs! Impossible to rationalize! But this isn’t necessarily true. You can make welfare systems that are bizarrely complicated, but laying out a basic welfare framework doesn’t have to be a byzantine affair. Consider the following four-part framework that captures the vast majority of what… Continue reading A Basic Welfare Framework
Institutions Matter Except When They Are Socialist
Robert Solow once remarked: Every discussion among economists of the relatively slow growth of the British economy compared with the Continental economies ends up in a blaze of amateur sociology. This is the final move of right-wing economists whenever the assumptions of their ideologically-infused policy prescriptions end up contradicted by observed reality. After a few… Continue reading Institutions Matter Except When They Are Socialist
The Social Democratic Sharing Economy
In a new piece in Democracy Journal, Nick Hanauer and David Rolf argue that, in response to the rise of the sharing economy, we need to transition away from our employer-provided welfare benefit system to a more public system. Jeff Spross had a nearly identical (though considerably shorter) argument in The Week earlier this month. While I obviously am a… Continue reading The Social Democratic Sharing Economy
Transrace and Transgender
When I am not reading economics-related material, one of the things I like to do is probe the strangest depths of Tumblr identity debates. Although I don’t write about it much (save one time before) and have no particular interest in their outcomes, I find these debates extremely fascinating on a purely argumentative level and… Continue reading Transrace and Transgender
What are the costs of attending college?
The college financing debate has a lot of weird quirks in it. One of those weird quirks is what gets spoken of as the costs of attending college. Consider the following three costs: Opportunity costs (i.e. foregone income in the years you are studying). Direct costs of college itself (i.e. tuition, books, fees, etc.). Living… Continue reading What are the costs of attending college?