Category Archives: A Working Economy

The media has done a great job covering the 85 people who own more than half the world statistic from the Oxfam report entitled: Working for the Few: Political Capture and Economic Inequality. Media examples here, here, and here.

What I didn’t realize until I read the report was that it has an excellent set of recommendations on how to improve the situation.

Since they’re excellent, the mainstream media seems to have ignored them, and I don’t think Oxfam would mind, here is their series of recommendations.

I stumbled on the following quote from economist Ha-Joon Chang over the holidays:

Once you realize that trickle-down economics does not work, you will see the excessive tax cuts for the rich as what they are—a simple upward redistribution of income, rather than a way to make all of us richer, as we were told.

Chang’s quote reminds us of the initial promise of supply-side economics, that a rising tide would lift all boats, and the subsequent failure to deliver.

It also made me think about one of the most powerful conservative frames: redistribution of wealth.

Chang turns the tables on the typical conservative argument and he gave me an idea how to take things a step further.

As part of a recent discussion on the Green Party forum about the Alaska Project, Justin Jeffre responded with a particularly well-framed argument in favor of supportive housing.

I thought this might be helpful if anyone is calling or writing city council (or anyone else for that matter) in support of the project. It seems particularly relevant in light of resident testimony yesterday claiming that the project would be a “haven” for drug dealers.

If you haven’t noticed yet, the conservative wedge issue for 2014 is going to be health care.

Democratic Senators like Mary Landrieu have noticed.

They simply don’t appear to have much of a strategy to date: 1) apologize for the horrible website, 2) focus on the economy, and 3) keep explaining to conservatives why a conservative solution is not such a bad thing.

If we can’t do better, well before November, expect to lose the Senate.

This is a little bit off topic from the usual political fare, but NHL Gamecenter is a perfect metaphor for our current economy- a company that rather than provide a quality service, looks to sell you something which sounds good on the surface until you discover the fine print.

By now, you’ve heard the Gingrich line about Obama being the “food stamp” President.

Tuesday in Cincinnati, he repeated the claim:

That’s why I’ve said over and over again that this is the best food stamp President in American history.

Here’s how Democrats responded and here’s how they should have responded.

Here’s a quick and easy way to illustrate systemic failure in capitalism in a bar over drinks.

Before beginning, you may want to place a beer bet with your friend(s). Something like “I bet I can prove to you on the back of this napkin that capitalism needs government.”

Here’s the setup for the scenario:

Two trappers are trapping animals in the wilderness. The trappers have 2 options. They can work hard and trap, or they can poach or steal from their neighbor.

To illustrate, draw a chart similar to the one below on any standard white restaurant napkin:

(Credit to Joseph Heath for the original explanation).

Have you ever been accused by a conservative of being against “economic freedom”? One of my friends posted this the other day: It’s impossible to be anti-capitalistic and pro-freedom at the same time. If you’re against capitalism, you’re against freedom. My gut reaction was: Really? But before getting into an […]

The campaign to pass Issue 2 is in full swing in Ohio so I thought I’d review the pro-Issue 2 marketing, what they’re trying to accomplish, and how best to fight against it. Remember, Issue 2 is the issue which limits collective bargaining for state employees such as police, firefighters, […]

When I was 14, I picked up Atlas Shrugged thinking it was a science fiction novel.

My critique at the time was one word: boring. As science fiction, it didn’t measure up to Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick, Orson Scott Card, or any of the other science fiction I was reading at the time. Even L. Ron Hubbard.

With so many folks referring to Ayn Rand in the news recently and with the new release of Atlas Shrugged, I thought I’d revisit Rand to better understand it.