Tag Archives: inequality
Into the Fire
Vastly unequal empires never end well. In his 2017 book The Great Leveler, Stanford historian Walter Scheidel, demonstrates how extreme inequality has been “resolved” throughout history. Unfortunately, Scheidel found that so far the only thing that has undone such inequality—the only … Continue reading
The Dismal Science
Examining the power centers in the US entails examining the ideologies behind them and there’s no greater ideological power than economics as it promotes and justifies capitalism. Economics and economists are ultimately political but this truism gets ignored in the … Continue reading
Pity the Billionaire
If the billionaires that are presently building hidey-holes in New Zealand want to help their cause they should bring back Noblesse oblige. Seriously, they could save a lot of money, which seems to be the raison d’être for billionaires. Notice how … Continue reading
Because Markets
Once again, there was a mass-shooting in America. This time in Las Vegas, where a 64 year old man sprayed bullets down onto concert-goers, killing 58 people and wounding 489. The statistics paint a horrible picture of gun violence in … Continue reading
Pitchforks
Since the election results came in the Hillary Clinton wing of the Democratic Party along with the corporate media have been in full cry over Russia’s supposed interference. Nick Hanauer, a Seattle-based entrepreneur, has a better explanation of why … Continue reading
Because Markets
Neoliberals believe that a market society is the natural and inexorable state of humankind, where Americans are not citizens so much as consumers. However, neoliberals recognize that this state of affairs will not arise naturally and must be constructed through … Continue reading
FIRE Alarm
We used to make things and employee people who were paid wages that they spent back into the economy. Finance properly allocated capital for productive ends rather than speculation and fraud. We had a productive economy that benefitted Main Street … Continue reading