Robin Hiltonsmith has a report at Demos called “At What Cost?” It purports to show the lifetime wealth hit a median couple graduating from public college will face due to student debt. The report has a number of defects, a few of which I detail below. 1. The debt assumption is 50 percent higher than… Continue reading Student debt and wealth and here we go again
How many birth-right privileges should we have?
Friend of the blog David Callahan and I have been going back and forth over at Demos about social mobility and equal opportunity. It started when Callahan wrote a post noting that kids born near the top of the income distribution wind up, on average, lower than their parents in the income distribution. He represented… Continue reading How many birth-right privileges should we have?
Policy Shop: Poverty is Poison
New post at Policy Shop. Excerpt: The lead analogy is a good one for purposes of policy construction. In response to learning that lead was messing up kids brains, we sought to eliminate exposure to it, e.g. by banning leaded gasoline, by banning lead paint, and by undertaking lead remediation projects. But we don’t do… Continue reading Policy Shop: Poverty is Poison
The Soul of Man under Socialism in the New York Times
Peter Buffett has a piece in the New York Times titled The Charitable-Industrial Complex. From the article: As more lives and communities are destroyed by the system that creates vast amounts of wealth for the few, the more heroic it sounds to “give back.” It’s what I would call “conscience laundering” — feeling better about… Continue reading The Soul of Man under Socialism in the New York Times
Policy Shop: Which Economic Classes Have the Most Student Debt?
New post at Policy Shop. Excerpt: Whatever else there is to say about student debt, it cannot be said that debt falls primarily on lower income households. You would expect, from what we know of the college wage premium, that debt would primarily fall on higher income households, and indeed that’s what you find. For… Continue reading Policy Shop: Which Economic Classes Have the Most Student Debt?