Why We Need Free College for Everyone — Even Rich People
Centrists claim free college is a giveaway to the rich. That’s just a smokescreen for their opposition to universal social programs.
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Brunch Bros Are Just a Symptom
Capitalism has proven itself unable to provide us all with homes — the most basic human need after food and water.
The Solution to AI-Driven Job Displacement Is a Robust Welfare State
The idea that AI will wipe out all our jobs is generating lots of apocalyptic headlines these days. It's no surprise why: in a society without an egalitarian welfare state and pro-worker policies, labor reallocation can be a disaster.
New York’s New Child Tax Credit Proposal Is a Means-Tested Disaster
A laudable effort to consolidate tax credits in New York State is hampered by policymakers’ obsession with means testing.
Universalism Fixes Flawed Welfare States
Thousands of Americans cohabitate but don't marry because doing so would result in the loss of Medicaid eligibility. Marriage penalties (and bonuses) are just part of why we need a universal social-democratic welfare state.
“Our Solidarity Must Become a Verb”
In a speech last week at the UN, Marc Lamont Hill issued a passionate call for action to achieve justice in Palestine. We reprint his address here in full.
AMLO Is Reducing Poverty in Mexico
Since coming to office in 2018, Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has made tackling inequality a key tenet of his Fourth Transformation. Millions have been lifted out of poverty, and the divide between rich and poor is shrinking.
The Best Way to Secure LGBTQ Rights: Unions
Labor’s ability to improve queer workers’ lives stems from its power to raise standards for all workers.
Meritocratic Myths
Elite universities don't offer poor and working-class students class mobility — they maintain a rigid class hierarchy.
How Yemen’s Old Order Snuffed Out the Country’s Hopes for a New Dawn
Ten years ago, inspired by revolts in Egypt and Tunisia, Yemenis challenged an authoritarian ruler and dared to dream of a new future for their country. But a backlash by Yemen’s old guard and interference by foreign powers crushed those hopes and plunged the country into war.
Universal Benefits Are Actually Cheaper Than Means-Tested Ones
The argument that means-tested welfare programs reduce inequality and poverty more than non-means-tested programs is based on an accounting trick. Universal benefits are the best and cheapest way to alleviate poverty.
Why Americans Feel Like They’re Falling Behind
There is a widespread feeling that the living standard of the average American has declined since the mid-20th century. This is false — but it reflects the reality that it is now much harder for single-earner families to afford a mainstream lifestyle.
Means-Testing Has Nothing to Do With “Getting Help to Those Who Need It Most”
Lawmakers and wonks who insist on means-testing every government program like to posture as champions of the poor and downtrodden. But the fake Robin Hood act is just a cover for their deep-seated suspicion of the welfare state.
Thank You, Pablo Iglesias
Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias has announced his retirement. Over the last decade, he brought the radical left to the heart of Spanish politics — but its challenge to the establishment ultimately fell short.
To Properly Care for Mental Health Problems, We Must First Accept Those Problems Are Real
Access to mental health services in Canada is woefully inadequate. To build a thoroughgoing mental health infrastructure, the Left must confront anti-psychiatry advocates and insist that mental illness exists — and that the best care is publicly funded.
Social Democracy for Our Time
Most dismiss social democracy as the fading echo of a bygone age — Lane Kenworthy disagrees.
Worked to Death
The American pension crisis helps corporations maintain a precarious, easily exploitable workforce.
Class Politics in America Is Far From Dead
A venerable theory about people’s political values is making a comeback: the theory of “postmaterialism.” But despite what you may have heard, the theory doesn’t say class politics is doomed in rich countries — and neither did the scholar who created it.
Public Housing Is Social Housing
The housing crisis is a calamity that can no longer be ignored. AOC and Bernie Sanders’s newly reintroduced Green New Deal for Public Housing highlights the importance of deeply affordable and generously funded public housing as key to solving this crisis.
Now Is the Time to Tax the Rich in New York, Kathy Hochul
New York governor Kathy Hochul is trying to dodge taxing the rich to please her wealthy donors, argue New York City Democratic Socialists of America’s cochairs Grace Mausser and Gustavo Gordillo.