Archives for June 2018

Right-wing troll Ben Shapiro has a cliché he deploys whenever he's confronted by someone who disagrees with his particular brand of snarky malevolence: "facts don't care about your feelings." Of course, what Ben means is that his feelings don't care about your facts. If Ben feels you're wrong, then you're wrong regardless of the evidence you provide, and if Ben feels he's right … [Read more...] about Distinguishing between falsifiable and non-falsifiable claims

There is no cliché more beloved by chin-stroking observers of The West than the "sclerotic" labor markets of Western Europe. France is of course the most notoriously sclerotic labor market; but Spain hasn't dodged sclerosis either; and even our Anglo-Saxon brethren in the United Kingdom have a certain sclerotic tendency. There is a problem with this diagnosis, … [Read more...] about What if low US labor force participation is driven by low US labor standards?

For decades (at least as long as I've been alive), people have used the expressions "marriage bonus" and "marriage penalty" to describe what happens to the income tax liability of a couple before and after they formally wed. But focusing attention on changes in income tax liability has resulted in a totally inadequate amount of attention being paid to the actual marriage … [Read more...] about Means-testing and the real marriage penalties (wonkish)