Fintech and Microfinance Are Preying on the Global Poor
Microfinance and fintech have been sold as innovative solutions to poverty in the Global South. But for the most part, they’ve just enriched wealthy investors at the poor’s expense.
183 Search Result(s) for: “basic income”
Further Means Testing of the Stimulus Will Be Disastrous for Suffering Americans
If Democrats subject the next round of survival checks to more means testing, Americans battered by the economic crisis will find it even more difficult to make ends meet.
Against Charity
Rather than creating an individualized “culture of giving,” we should be challenging capitalism’s institutionalized taking.
Why Class Matters as Much as Ever
Some argue that the continued existence of the middle class refutes Karl Marx’s analysis of capitalism. In an interview with Jacobin, Vivek Chibber explains why this is wrong.
UBI Already Exists, We Just Need to Redistribute It
Capital's share is more than enough money to finance a universal basic income.
US Health Care Sucks, Even If You Have Health Insurance
It is a gross injustice that 30 million Americans lack health insurance — but the insured also face serious problems, paying through the nose for substandard care. We need a universal, automatic, free health care plan.
Capital Eats the World
Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century shows that not everything in mainstream economics is worthless.
Where Next for Finland’s Welfare State?
Li Andersson, the leader of Finland’s Left Alliance, on the country’s diminishing welfare state, rising populist right, and possible socialist future.
How to Be an Anticapitalist Today
Anticapitalism isn't simply a moral stance against injustice — it's about building an alternative.
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.
Capitalism and Poverty
Who was poor in 2016 — and why our system keeps failing them.
The Left Needs the “Uneducated” Working Class
All around the world, the Left has been hemorrhaging working-class support for decades. To think it could achieve long-run success as the champion of affluent cosmopolitanism is whistling past the graveyard.
The US Economy Is a System of Plunder
Runaway inequality, regressive taxes, rampant labor exploitation. It’s often said the US economy “isn’t working,” but the truth is that capitalism is a class system that’s working exactly as intended.
Should We Care About Inequality?
Since Occupy Wall Street, “inequality” has emerged as a central theme of progressive politics. Is that a good thing?
Tax the Rich, Because Inequality Is Bad for All of Us
Economic inequality undermines democracy, hastens environmental destruction, fosters anxiety, and erodes social trust. We can start to solve these problems by taxing the rich, as progressives and socialists in New York State are now proposing.
A Socialist Primer on Monetary Policy and Inflation
Utter the words “monetary policy” and many of us fall asleep. But that policy is crucial to how capitalists exert power. Instead of leaving it to the “experts,” socialists and the labor movement should demand a democratic say in what monetary policy looks like.
Eco-Socialism or Bust
To confront climate change, we need to democratize, decarbonize, and decommodify our energy resources.
The Democrats Are Eisenhower Republicans
For decades, Democrats have positioned themselves as guardians of fiscal responsibility while Republicans happily hand tax cuts to the rich.