Poverty Shortens Your Life
New research into life expectancy across England’s richest and poorest areas reveals the real cost of social inequality: a decade of life.
Blog
To Stabilize Yemen, the United States Must Stop Selling Arms to Saudi Arabia
Two bills now before Congress would block a proposed $650 million arms sale to Saudi Arabia. That won’t end the war in Yemen, but it’s a necessary start. Progressive lawmakers should join Ilhan Omar and Bernie Sanders in supporting the bills.
Blind Faith in the Army Isn’t “Supporting Veterans”
British politicians increasingly seek to silence criticism of wars abroad by emphasizing the need to “respect our boys.” But, veteran Joe Glenton tells Jacobin, many recruits who’ve seen the British army from the inside aren’t happy about being used to launder its image.
Amazon Is Reshaping Contemporary Literature
From the hypercommercialization of Kindle Singles to the fraught question of classifying book genres, Amazon has put its stamp on the literary field in ways large and small — but always in the interests of profit, says Mark McGurl, author of Everything and Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon.
Bernie Sanders Is Facing Down Corporate Democrats on Taxes
The Democrats are poised to pass a giant, regressive tax giveaway to the wealthy by raising the SALT cap deduction. Bernie Sanders is trying to stop them.
Nick Kristof’s Bill Gates Problem
For years, Nicholas Kristof’s New York Times column has relentlessly promoted and whitewashed the controversial projects spearheaded by Bill and Melinda Gates, like for-profit education and exploitative microlending. As governor of Oregon, would Kristof continue serving billionaire interests?
Oliver Stone Talks to Jacobin About JFK’s Killing
Oliver Stone sat down with Jacobin to discuss JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass, his new documentary that exhaustively makes the case that the national security state, including the CIA and FBI, killed John F. Kennedy — not a lone shooter.
How the Mexican Revolution Made John Reed a Red
John Reed’s thrilling dispatches from the front lines of the Mexican Revolution could have made him a pop culture celebrity. Instead, the experience made him a committed socialist.
The Pete Buttigieg Documentary Is an Empty Portrait of an Empty Politician
Amazon’s new Pete Buttigieg documentary attempts the impossible: making the disturbingly empty yet also unnervingly ambitious mayor of South Bend somehow seem like a compelling historical figure. It fails.
Corruption and Patronage Are the Norm in the Australian Labor Party
Earlier this year, disgraced former MP Adem Somyurek joined the long list of Labor politicians to be investigated for corruption. Somyurek was no outlier — the nepotism and cronyism he practiced are just part of the day-to-day running of the Australian Labor Party.
Microworkers are “Disempowered to a Degree Previously Unseen in Capitalist History”
“Microworkers” are the anonymous digital contract workers whose labor powers the tech giants’ artificial intelligence systems. They’re hyper-exploited — and, like all other workers under capitalism, will continue suffering until they can organize.
China’s Growth Model Is in Crisis
China has long seen high-speed economic growth tied to property investment. That model is now failing.