Universal Benefits Make Sense. Means-Testing Doesn’t.
Universal benefits aren’t merely the morally just way to carry out welfare policies. They are also the smart way to carry out welfare policies.
19655 Articles by: Elizabeth Mahony
Australia Has Sacrificed Julian Assange to the United States
The US is fighting tooth and nail to get Julian Assange extradited to an American prison. Ever the dutiful ally, the Australian government is effectively giving over Assange, and flouting any commitment to human rights, freedom of the press, and democracy in the process.
From Italian Factories to British Pizzerias
Working-class authors often write of alienation from hometown life after going to university and becoming professionals. Alberto Prunetti’s autobiographical novel instead tells us what it’s like to leave an Italian steel town only to find low-paid kitchen jobs in England.
Erie Ironworkers Need Dental So Badly, One Pulled His Own Tooth Out at Work
Ironworkers at Erie Strayer have been on strike for ten weeks. They’re fighting for a 3 percent raise, dental, and an end to the company’s draconian attendance policy. Erie offered them a nickel an hour more.
The Red-Green Alliance Won Copenhagen’s Election by Fighting for Affordable Housing
The left-wing Red-Green Alliance won November’s elections in Copenhagen with a tightly focused campaign on making housing affordable again, handing the city’s Social Democrats their first defeat in over a century.
Fighting French Fascism Means More Than “Anyone but Éric Zemmour”
Fascist TV pundit Éric Zemmour has announced his bid for the French presidency. His advance is part of a rising tide of Islamophobia and authoritarianism pushing France toward the far right.
Financialization Was a Response to Capitalism’s Failings
Popular critiques of financial deregulation often blame the City of London’s excessive political influence. But financialization wasn’t imposed on capitalism by elite plotting — it was a political response to its inherent crisis tendencies.
Washington Tried to Destroy Honduras’s Left. Now It’s Back in Power.
Xiomara Castro won Honduras’s presidency pledging to tax wealth, expand the welfare state, and end the country’s “failed neoliberal model.” Her win was also a defeat for the US, which backed a coup that overthrew her husband Manuel Zelaya 12 years ago.
Big Pharma’s Profiteering Led to the Omicron Variant
For months, medical experts warned that leaving large areas of the world unvaccinated would make new variants inevitable. But for Big Pharma, profits come before public health.
The Reconciliation Bill Gives a Huge Gift to the Gas Industry
The reconciliation bill’s clean energy rebate program sneaks in a provision that could tie homeowners’ appliances to natural gas for a long time — benefiting fossil fuel companies at the expense of the climate.
The Problem With Alice Waters and the “Slow Food” Movement
If we followed the advice of “slow food” advocates like Alice Water, we’d end up with literally billions hungry and more workers hyperexploited. There’s nothing progressive about the “slow food revolution.”
How Big-Business Lobbyists Are Protecting the Corporate Court
Big business loves the Supreme Court just how it is: on the side of big business. That’s why corporate lobbyists want to stop any possible Supreme Court reforms the Biden administration might consider.
Composer Stephen Sondheim Wasn’t Interested in Treacly Optimism or False Heroes
No lyricist and composer treated their audience more like adults — capable of wrestling with the ambiguities and tragedies of life, without needing big, dumb heroes or happy endings — than Stephen Sondheim.
“Texas Is Not a Red State. It Is an Underorganized State.”
Austin City Council member Greg Casar has passed dozens of pieces of progressive legislation in the last 7 years, from paid sick leave law to renters’ protections. Now he says he wants to take federal action on working-class issues by running for Congress.
UAW Members Have Voted for Democracy in Their Union
The United Auto Workers is one of America’s most important unions. It has long been hobbled by an autocratic internal culture and widespread corruption. The members’ vote in favor of a direct voting system to elect leadership could change that.
Niccolò Machiavelli Was the Philosopher of Left-Wing Populism
For centuries, detractors of Niccolò Machiavelli have presented him as the founding father of political cynicism. But the Italian thinker was really a republican idealist whose support for popular rule can inspire struggles against the oligarchies of today.
The Loudest Opponents of “Inflation” Are Some of Its Biggest Aiders and Abettors
Prescription drugs, hospital visits, housing, higher education, and more have all become frighteningly more expensive, far outpacing Americans’ wages. But those kinds of price increases are ignored by the politicians who are now stridently decrying inflation.
The Chris Cuomo Affair Is an Indictment of America’s Elite Media Culture
Chris Cuomo abused his platform at CNN to help his politically besieged brother. It was flagrantly unethical, but in keeping with the culture of complete unaccountability for unethical abuse that American media elites have long enjoyed.
Forty Years Later, Reds Is Still One of the Best Films Ever Made About Revolutionary Politics
In 1981, Warren Beatty directed Reds, a retelling of John Reed’s classic firsthand account of the Russian Revolution. The film still stands up today as one of the greatest and most faithful depictions of revolutionary politics.
Canadian News Media Is Dominated by Corporate Lobbyists
An investigation carried out by Ricochet in collaboration with Jacobin finds Canadian TV panels are dominated by lobbyists. These corporate pundits are treated as impartial talking heads, but they’re actually part of an effort to defend Canadian capitalists.