rant

Paul Ryan, having decided that his services will no longer be needed by the American people come January, is taking one last bite at the apple of welfare reform by proposing onerous restrictions on who is eligible to receive SNAP benefits, the only remaining near-cash welfare benefit available to low-income Americans. I do not have a very high opinion of work as an … [Read more...] about There are no work requirements, only paperwork requirements

I read with interest the essay of National Review columnist Kyle Smith about the response of the Starbucks coffee drink company to reports that one of their employees summoned Philadelphia's municipal law enforcement authorities in response to the presence of two men at one of their Rittenhouse Square coffee drink locations. He writes: "We can all easily imagine circumstances … [Read more...] about What can the police do but arrest them?

Given the prestige economics holds as a profession under late capitalism, it's somewhat odd how little attention is paid to the genuine theoretical innovations of the economics profession. I was reminded of this most recently by George Will's recent column in the Washington Post, which I'll quote at length: "The recent bipartisan budget agreement, which signals that 12-digit … [Read more...] about Consumption smoothing is the best-theorized, least-implemented idea in economics

The lives of Americans my age are overwhelmingly defined by a single formative experience. Not the September 11 attacks, which happened at the beginning of my junior year of high school, but the global financial crisis. Obviously both events affected Americans of all ages old enough to remember them, but people my age had the unique privilege of entering the workforce during … [Read more...] about The high-employment generation

Canadian philosophy professor and YouTube hit Jordan Peterson recently attracted some attention when he published a book called "12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos," and a number of other folks on the internet got in on the act with their own "rules for life." You can read Peterson's rules here, if you're so inclined. I don't know whether they're good rules or bad … [Read more...] about Is intergenerational advice possible?