December 31, 2017Comments Off on A Note on Jobs & Unemployment – revised
A Note on Jobs & Unemployment Original publication date – 12/27/2016; Revised – 12/31/2017 As the presidential campaign of 2016 fades away and the Trump Era begins, we find a national scene without any real discussion of the facts of jobs and unemployment and what the future might bring. Trump --->> read more -->>
December 29, 2017Comments Off on Recently Noted – Robert Reich: how we got into this mess and how we get out of it
Recently Noted – Robert Reich: how we got into this mess and how we get out of it This is a good description of how we got into our current mess; the way out is weaker. Nevertheless, well worth the six minute view. A few thoughts To be clear the --->> read more -->>
December 14, 2017Comments Off on Recently Noted: World Inequality Report 2018 – findings and policies
Inequality in the World – findings Inequality in wealth and income is not a new phenomenon. Nevertheless, recent decades in the US, and as this new report World Inequality Report 2018 shows, the world has seen a real explosion in inequality. As shown in the charts below the US is --->> read more -->>
This website casts new light on the delusions of American life. It provides facts and analysis to critique thinking that serves to shield activities of those seeking to gain advantage over others. To get started read Delusions of American Life first. Then, see the keystone essay, “What Is Capitalism and --->> read more -->>
July 14, 2017Comments Off on Recently Noted – about free market capitalism – is capitalism the real problem?
Capitalism is driven by a single internal logic that requires the transformation of people and nature into commodities to produce profits. This logic is amoral and the system, excepting for external controls by government and social institutions, just churns on. Despite the enormous increase in the economic output over the --->> read more -->>
July 5, 2017Comments Off on Capitalism and Innovation
Innovation is at the heart of capitalism We have been constantly told this for so long that it is now an assumption that has become an accepted fact. On the other hand, government is slow-footed, clumsy, bureaucratic, rule bound and the antithesis of innovative. This is the flip side of --->> read more -->>
June 3, 2017Comments Off on Neoliberalism Revisited
A return to a topic first posted 2/10/2017. Neoliberalism – a term that needs never to be used February 10, 2017 Dollars and Sense has been around since the 1970s. Always a source of well researched critiques of capitalism. I recently, after a more than 30 year hiatus, re-upped a --->> read more -->>
May 7, 2017Comments Off on Regulations vs Protections – more than just words
In a recent stream of comments about a post in GossipsOfRivertown, “More about Dumped Cement” Virginia Martin wrote to me: Mark Orton said “This is why we have government regulations.” Linguist George Lakoff would say the term “regulations” is ill-considered. He’d say they’re protections. This is why we have government --->> read more -->>
April 5, 2017Comments Off on Building the New American Economy – Not
The title of this short book, only 130 pages, Building the New American Economy: smart, fair, & sustainable by Jeffrey D. Sachs with a foreword by Bernie Sanders (Columbia University Press, 2017) is unfortunately misleading. There is much here about the new economy. The misleading part is that there is --->> read more -->>
March 1, 2017Comments Off on Diversity and Identity Politics Is A Deadend
Progressives have to declare class war as a central strategy. Otherwise we will all be sitting at the dinner table basking in our glorious diversity with nothing to eat. For many good reasons identity and diversity have dominated our politics for decades. Progressives celebrate its expansion and Republicans and their --->> read more -->>
February 10, 2017Comments Off on Neoliberalism – a term that needs never to be used – Updated
Dollars and Sense has been around since the 1970s. Always a source of well researched critiques of capitalism. I recently, after a more than 30 year hiatus, re-upped a subscription. Dear Dollars & Sense, Your new issue showed up the other day with the word “neoliberalism” in bold type on --->> read more -->>
January 29, 2017Comments Off on Talk Back: Correcting the Anti-Government Bias of Our Politics
President Reagan was not the originator of this central trope of free-market (neo-liberal) politics, but he famously said in his first Inaugural Address in 1981, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” President Clinton, a Democrat, continued this theme during his terms culminating the the --->> read more -->>
December 29, 2016Comments Off on The Gig Economy in the Academy – a note
The values of capitalism, especially as expressed through free market (neoliberal) ideology, have come to dominate how we organize our lives. Silicon Valley and the tech sector is busy celebrating the “gig” economy. Companies have simply stopped hiring employees and now conduct much of their work using “temps”, “1099ers”, part-time --->> read more -->>
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