Abolish Inherited Wealth
Allowing wealth to accumulate from one generation to another is a recipe for unacceptable inequalities. We should abolish inherited wealth.
271 Articles by: Ben Burgis
Ben Burgis is a Jacobin columnist, an adjunct philosophy professor at Rutgers University, and the host of the YouTube show and podcast Give Them An Argument. He’s the author of several books, most recently Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters.
Jimmy Dore Is Right About the Urgency of Medicare for All. But AOC Isn’t the Problem.
It’s good that we’re talking about the urgent need for Medicare for All. But democratic-socialist politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez aren’t the ones standing in the way of an American welfare state. Let’s figure out how to actually build working-class power and win change.
We Don’t Need a Culture War. We Need a Class War.
“Polarization” isn’t intrinsically good or bad, but the kind we have now is a roadblock to progress. We need to find ways to depolarize along culture war lines and repolarize along class war lines.
The Last Thing We Need Is To “Go Back To Normal”
After four years of having a xenophobic reality TV host in the White House, the desire to just “go back to normal” is understandable. But a return to normalcy would be disastrous, shoring up the plutocratic status quo that gave us Trump in the first place.
Judith Jarvis Thomson (1929–2020)
Judith Jarvis Thomson was one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century. Her justly famous essay in defense of abortion rights is a model for how to combine philosophical rigor with political engagement in the real world.
It’s Not That Complicated. Cancelling Student Debt Is Good.
The argument that we shouldn’t cancel student debt because it’s unfair to those who have paid off their loans doesn’t hold up. Don’t overthink it: we should cancel all student debt and make public universities, community colleges, and vocation schools tuition-free.
How the Left Beat Trump in Michigan
According to centrists, the “blue wave” didn’t materialize because of the Left. That’s nonsense — and in at least one crucial swing state, Joe Biden rode to victory because of the organizing of progressives and leftists.
No Honeymoon for Joe Biden
It’s good that Donald Trump lost. But the Left now needs to pivot immediately to opposition to the Joe Biden administration.
Let Everyone Vote
More than 31 million adults who live in the United States are legally prohibited from voting in today’s election. That’s an obscene human rights violation.
Nationalize Walmart
Walmart is the largest private-sector employer in the United States, and it’s an important source of low-cost groceries for consumers around the country. It also pays poverty wages, busts unions, and drives economic inequality. Luckily, there is an economically viable route to solving those ills: bring the megacorporation under public ownership.
Aaron Sorkin’s Chicago 7 Are Shockingly Sympathetic, but Lacking Radical Substance
The Trial of the Chicago 7 is surprisingly good for an Aaron Sorkin production. But the artistic liberties he takes with the historical facts, particularly around downplaying or leaving vague the protagonists’ radical politics, tell you a lot about Sorkin’s own blind spots.
Let’s Stop Talking About the “Overton Window”
Socialists should be making well-thought-out proposals for a better future and building the class power to bring that program into reality. The idea that our purpose is simply “shifting the Overton window” by spouting the most radical-sounding slogans is an unhelpful distraction.
So You’re Still Being Publicly Shamed
The Right wants you to believe that a coddled, overly sensitive left is propping up cancel culture. But punitive, hyper-surveillant ways of interacting online are built into the structure of privately owned social media companies, and they’re practiced across the political spectrum. The Left must insist on a better way.
The Cosmopolitan Socialism of Michael Brooks
Michael Brooks, who would have turned 37 years old today, wanted the Left to do better. In the last year of his life, he’d started to write a book about what that might look like.
What Michael Brooks Meant to Me
Michael Brooks was one of the funniest, most intellectually curious human beings I’ve ever known. He was also deeply committed to creating a better world.
How to Debate Libertarians on Taxes — And Destroy Them
On Tax Day, here’s a guide to arguing with libertarians about redistribution.
Nationalize the Ivy League, So We Can Rename Yale “UConn New Haven”
Should Yale, bearing a slave trader’s name, be renamed? Yes. Since Ivy League schools are engines of class inequality, we should first nationalize all the Ivies. Then Yale University can become UConn New Haven.
Defund the Police. Then Soak the Rich.
We absolutely need to defund the police and put the money in social services. To attack inequality and invest in poor and working-class neighborhoods of color, we need a massive increase in public spending. That means wresting resources from the rich.
Yes, Power Corrupts. That’s Why Socialists Want to Democratize Society
It’s a common refrain that socialists are naïve, unrealistic dreamers. But precisely the opposite is true: we know that power corrupts, so we want to democratize all spheres of society.
Yes, Socialism Would Handle the Coronavirus Pandemic Better Than Capitalism
My vision of democratic socialism wouldn’t be Utopia. But here’s the case it would be better than the status quo during both normal times and these times of crisis.