Mike Konczal dedicated his Saturday wonkblog post to the universal basic income (UBI). I’ve written about the UBI here from time to time. I am supportive of it, although I am more partial to a slight permutation on the idea that I’ve generally seen referred to as a social wage. A social wage is comprised… Continue reading The weak feminist case against a basic income
The debt dance
I’ve already written my piece about the latest Fed report that showed all young people are taking out less car loans and mortgages in the wake of the recession. The report showed that youth with student debt reduced their mortgage and car debt by slightly more percentage points than youth without it. Extrapolating anything meaningful… Continue reading The debt dance
Policy Shop: The Most Viable Way to Give a Boost to Low-Income Workers
New post at Policy Shop. Excerpt: But, as Hacker correctly points out, my view is almost certainly an outlying one. For cultural or other reasons, Americans tend to be more supportive of equality-producing measures that get baked into paychecks than they are of equality-producing measures that go through more overt government channels. As a result,… Continue reading Policy Shop: The Most Viable Way to Give a Boost to Low-Income Workers
MOOC of the day
Check out this $3,675.00 MOOC offered by a company called Barbri, complete with recorded video lectures and everything. Law graduates sign up en masse for it to study for the legal bar exam. Barbri claims to have the highest pass rate of all bar preparation services. Someone should study its attrition rates and related quality… Continue reading MOOC of the day
Argumentation 101
Let’s say I am arguing with a right-winger about implementing a universal basic income (“UBI”). They say to me “I oppose it because 1) it wont actually make the lives of the poor better and 2) I think private charity is the correct institution for this kind of thing.” The right-winger’s reasoning is clear, but… Continue reading Argumentation 101