Become a Patron! I got a nice response to my first post on personal finance during the plague so, as long as we're trapped inside together, I'll be sharing some more thoughts on what the pandemic means and how we can choose to respond to it. Over the past few months, a lot of people have stumbled into an uncomfortable truth: as Mindy Isser elegantly put it in Jacobin, … [Read more...] about After the plague: an economy of addition or subtraction?
rant
Why even the perfect income tax can’t substitute for a wealth tax
Become a Patron! After they finish hemming and hawing about "constitutional" arguments, opponents of proposals for an American tax on very large fortunes typically make one of two arguments: a more-progressive, better-enforced income and estate tax code could achieve the same revenue goals as a wealth tax, or; a value-added tax, like those used to fund European … [Read more...] about Why even the perfect income tax can’t substitute for a wealth tax
Prosperity, precarity, anxiety, and solidarity
Become a Patron! As we plunge into a second decade of economic and employment growth since the global financial crisis, I've noticed an interesting divide open between different methods of experiencing the present moment. It's interesting because while the divide has political content, it isn't intrinsically partisan, and the divide goes far beyond party … [Read more...] about Prosperity, precarity, anxiety, and solidarity
Why workers should fight for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, too
Become a Patron! Even though this blog is committed to promoting entrepreneurship, I often say I don't think everyone should become an entrepreneur, for the fundamental reason that not everyone wants to become an entrepreneur. Plenty of people want to go to work, do their job as well as they can (or as badly as they can get away with), and get paid a predictable amount on a … [Read more...] about Why workers should fight for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, too
“Social cohesion” and the bigot’s veto
Become a Patron! Last week I wrote about the way people use and abuse terms like "horizontal equity," "intersectionality," and "cultural Marxism," stripped of their original context and brandished as weapons for whatever the speaker's agenda happens to be: If you're embarrassed to say you think it's good that college graduates are forced to defer home purchases, … [Read more...] about “Social cohesion” and the bigot’s veto