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Protesters Against Wall Street
Sunday, October 16th, 2011
October 8, 2011
At this point, protest is the message: income inequality is grinding down that middle class, increasing the ranks of the poor, and threatening to create a permanent underclass of able, willing but jobless people. On one level, the protesters, most of them young, are giving voice to a generation of lost opportunity… Extreme inequality is the hallmark of a dysfunctional economy, dominated by a financial sector that is driven as much by speculation, gouging and government backing as by productive investment.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | 1 Comment »
Panic of the Plutocrats
Sunday, October 16th, 2011
October 9, 2011
Wall Street’s Masters of the Universe realize, deep down, how morally indefensible their position is… They’re people who got rich by peddling complex financial schemes that, far from delivering clear benefits to the American people, helped push us into a crisis whose aftereffects continue to blight the lives of tens of millions of their fellow citizens. Yet they have paid no price… And they benefit from tax loopholes that in many cases have people with multimillion-dollar incomes paying lower rates than middle-class families.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
The Enlightened Rich Want to Be Taxed
Sunday, September 18th, 2011
September 9, 2011
Some of the world’s wealthiest people are calling for higher taxes on the rich. They seem to recognize that the burden of the economic downturn cannot be borne entirely by the poor and middle class… The suggestion is motivated, no doubt, by a sense of justice — that the very rich, who have survived the financial crisis very well, should contribute more to shrinking public coffers to reduce the spending cuts that would hurt the most vulnerable. But altruism does not fully explain why members of the global elite are suddenly keen to prevent the deep budget reductions… They are also moved by what some might call enlightened self-interest.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
Failing Forward
Sunday, September 4th, 2011
August 26, 2011
We simply can’t keep turning to pills and prisons to solve issues of poverty and poor parenting. This is unhealthy, unsustainable and unwise… We also have to preserve women’s birth options should they become pregnant, including the option not to give birth. And, finally, for all the children who are born, we must make a valiant effort to give each and every one of them a fighting chance, which includes food and medicine when their parents can’t provide it. We must do this not as a boon or crutch to the parent, but as a selfish investment in the future of this great society.
Tags: ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
The Decade of Lost Children
Monday, August 15th, 2011
August 5, 2011
…the impact of the recession on children’s well-being has been catastrophic… As a report issued last week by the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out: “Of the 47 states with newly enacted budgets, 38 or more states are making deep, identifiable cuts in K-12 education, higher education, health care, or other key areas in their budgets for fiscal year 2012… We risk the creation of an engorged generational underclass born of a culture that has less income equality and fewer prospects for mobility than the previous generation.
Tags: crime prevention, ideology, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Stop Coddling the Super-Rich
Monday, August 15th, 2011
August 14, 2011
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, tax rates for the rich were far higher, and my percentage rate was in the middle of the pack. According to a theory I sometimes hear, I should have thrown a fit and refused to invest because of the elevated tax rates on capital gains and dividends. I didn’t refuse, nor did others. I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Sure Cure for the Debt Problem: Economic Growth
Sunday, August 7th, 2011
July 30, 2011
… there is, in theory, a happy solution to our debt troubles. It’s called economic growth. No need to raise taxes or cut programs. Just get the economy growing the way it used to… But… in the 1950s, the United States didn’t have Medicare. The population was younger, and Americans didn’t live as long… While it may be difficult or impossible to grow our way out of debt, the G.D.P. figures… suggest that we could quite possibly shrink our way into bankruptcy. The austerity measures that Congress is debating would almost certainly slow growth further. That, in turn, might actually worsen the debt problem — the exact opposite of what their proponents suggest.
Tags: economy, ideology
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
The Unexamined Society
Sunday, July 17th, 2011
July 7, 2011
We have two traditional understandings of poverty. The first presumes people are rational. They are pursuing their goals effectively and don’t need much help in changing their behavior. The second presumes that the poor are afflicted by cultural or psychological dysfunctions that sometimes lead them to behave in shortsighted ways. Neither of these theories has produced much in the way of effective policies. Eldar Shafir of Princeton and Sendhil Mullainathan of Harvard have recently, with federal help, been exploring a third theory, that scarcity produces its own cognitive traits.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Our Lefty Military
Sunday, July 10th, 2011
June 15, 2011
As we search for paths out of America’s economic crisis, many suggest business as a paradigm for cutting costs… top C.E.O.’s earn as much as $1 a second around the clock, partly by cutting medical benefits for employees. So they must be paragons of efficiency, right? …The business sector is dazzlingly productive, but it also periodically blows up our financial system. Yet if we seek another model, one that emphasizes universal health care and educational opportunity, one that seeks to curb income inequality, we don’t have to turn to Sweden. Rather, look to the United States military.
Tags: child care, Health, ideology, pensions, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Justice Goes Global
Sunday, June 26th, 2011
June 14, 2011
Sandel’s popularity in Asia reflects the intersection of three trends. One is the growth of online education, where students anywhere now can gain access to the best professors from everywhere. Another is the craving in Asia for a more creative, discussion-based style of teaching in order to produce more creative, innovative students. And the last is the hunger of young people to engage in moral reasoning and debates, rather than having their education confined to the dry technical aspects of economics, business or engineering.
Tags: globalization, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »
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