What Makes a Consumption Tax Regressive?
It’s complicated.
19561 Articles by: William G. Martin
William G. Martin teaches at SUNY-Binghamton and is co-author of After Prisons? Freedom, Decarceration, and Justice Disinvestment (2016) and a founding member of Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier; he covers local justice matters at www.justtalk.blog
Eric Adams’s Attacks on Homeless People Helped Bring Us to Jordan Neely’s Death
Since the beginning of his administration, Eric Adams has publicly demonized homeless people in New York City while cutting social services and public institutions like schools and libraries. These attacks helped pave the way for the killing of Jordan Neely.
“School Lunch Debt” Is a Phrase That Shouldn’t Exist in a Humane Society
Bernie Sanders and Ilhan Omar want schools to abolish “school lunch debt” and feed all children at school free of charge. In a decent society, that would be uncontroversial — yet every Republican and many Democrats haven’t signed on.
The Forgotten Case Against Milton Friedman
In 1967, Milton Friedman launched a counterrevolution in economics that overturned the Keynesian theory of inflation. Three years later, economist James Tobin issued a powerful theoretical rebuttal — but in the economics mainstream, it’s been all but forgotten.
A South Korean Labor Leader Has Self-Immolated in Protest of Anti-Union Charges
On May Day, South Korean construction union leader Yang Hoe-dong took his own life by setting himself on fire rather than accept the state’s anti-union charges against him. Yang is a brutal casualty of the South Korean president’s war on labor.
There Can Be No Peace in Sudan Without the Democratic Empowerment of Its People
The US and other Western governments cozied up to the Sudanese coup leaders who have now plunged the country into violent chaos. The only true hope for peace and democracy in Sudan lies with the popular resistance committees that are organizing against war.
Amazon Is Still Running an Injury Mill for Workers
Working at Amazon isn’t just physically taxing, it’s dangerous. Despite years of scrutiny and years of company spin, Amazon still has a serious injury rate more than double the rest of the industry.
JPMorgan Chase Is the Big Winner From First Republic Bank’s Failure
First Republic Bank’s failure resulted in its acquisition by JPMorgan Chase. As more banks continue to fail in the coming years, massive banks like Chase stand well-positioned to swallow them up.
Jackie Robinson Was More Than a Baseball Player
Jackie Robinson is popularly portrayed as a mainstream figure who broke baseball’s color line by quietly enduring racist abuse. But he was much more a lifelong activist and defiant crusader for civil rights.
We Need an Economic Bill of Rights
Political rights are not enough. Economic rights — the right to home, food, health care, a union, and a safe and stable planet — should be our rallying cry for a just country and world.
Industrial Workers in Australia Are Leading the Fight Against War
Workers in an industrial trading port in Australia are now at the forefront of the fight against war with China, demanding that jobs and environmental protections take precedence over militarism.
Landlords Are One of the Leading Causes of Canada’s Rent Crisis
Dismissing Canada’s rental crisis as nothing but a supply-demand issue overlooks the fact that a small group of landlords dominates the rental market and exploits tenants. As rents become extortionate, Canadian landlords are reaping record profits.
There’s No Such Thing as a Spontaneous Strike
It’s easy to look enviously at strikes in other countries and bemoan American workers’ apathy. But even the most dramatic forms of mass resistance are the product of years of commitment to changing people’s minds and understanding workplace politics.
In Texas, Big Oil Is Trying to Buy Its Own Judges
Texas’s oil and gas industry is pushing legislation to create a new court system for hearing certain business cases. The law would give fossil fuel friend Gov. Greg Abbott the power to personally appoint judges to hear cases involving oil and gas companies.
The Reproductive Rights Movement Has Radical Roots
Abortion rights in the US were won in the 1970s thanks to militant feminist groups that built campaigns from the ground up. As those rights are repealed, the fight against conservative reaction must return to the streets.
Marxism Is the Product of a Struggle for Political Freedom
It’s important to place the leading figures of Marxism in the context that shaped them. That context has to include the repressive state structures and extreme inequalities of Europe in the early 20th century, which made revolution seem inevitable.
Report: Turkey’s Gold Mining Has a Deadly Cost
Residents in Turkey’s Black Sea region face contamination from gold mining, enabled by British corporate interests and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s policies. Jacobin spoke to them about their life-and-death struggle in advance of Sunday’s election.
Flint’s Water Crisis Isn’t Over
The Flint water crisis began nine years ago. Despite initially drawing huge headlines and promises to fix the city’s poisoned drinking supply, no one responsible for the crisis has gone to jail, and residents say water still isn’t fully drinkable.
Chile Has Entered Its Thermidorian Period
The far right’s victory in elections for the Constitutional Council may be the death knell for a progressive constitution in Chile. It’s also a needed wake-up call for the Chilean left.
Ian Penman’s Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors Is a Love Letter to Postwar Counterculture
The music critic Ian Penman made his name during the heady days of anti-Thatcher counterculture. In Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors, he finds his match in the frenzied life and work of postwar Germany’s most iconoclastic director, Rainer Werner Fassbinder.