Earlier, I explained the common argumentative strategy I call Capitalism Whack-a-Mole. People who utilize this strategy claim that they support capitalism for a specific normative reason (e.g. that it gives to each what they produce), but then, when you show that normative reason is actually inconsistent with capitalism, they shift to a totally new normative… Continue reading Desert-Sacrifice-Utility Whack-a-Mole
Let’s Continue Referring to the “Work-Life Balance”
Adam Gurri has an interesting piece in which he criticizes the phrase “work-life” balance: I think that “work-life balance” is an unfortunate phrase that has a great deal of currency. I’m not saying that everyone should just give up on having time to spend living outside of work. I’m glad there’s a conversation about prioritizing… Continue reading Let’s Continue Referring to the “Work-Life Balance”
Tradition-Aggression-Desert Whack-A-Mole
Earlier, I outlined the familiar game of capitalism whack-a-mole. In this game, proponents of capitalism shift constantly between the incompatible normative frameworks of voluntarism, desert, and utility. It’s funny because, during the whack-a-mole game, the underlying reasons that they claim to motivate them change dramatically, but their conclusions never do. Yesterday, I was host to… Continue reading Tradition-Aggression-Desert Whack-A-Mole
Is Social Security defensible on traditionalist grounds or not?
I wrote about the new hotness of mushy traditionalism (instead of conventional normative argument) being mobilized to somehow support libertarianism. I got this response from Adam Gurri, which am not satisfied with because it does not answer back my concerns, but rather rehashes an abstract explanation of what traditionalism means. To show I read it,… Continue reading Is Social Security defensible on traditionalist grounds or not?
Here is exactly how the Census supplemental poverty calculation is derived
Previously I wrote the smashing hit “Here is exactly how the Census poverty calculation is derived.” It explains in great detail how the Official Poverty Metric (OPM) works. Here, I do the same thing for the Supplemental Poverty Metric (SPM). Units All poverty metrics require some way of drawing lines around sets of people and… Continue reading Here is exactly how the Census supplemental poverty calculation is derived