The Problems With Means-Testing Are Real
Means-testing makes social programs to help average people highly vulnerable to cuts and a bureaucratic nightmare to sign up for. We have to reject means-testing.
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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.
Yours, Mine, but Not Ours
Why the politics of national security means that we're all living in failed Hobbesian states.
Inequality Should Not Be the Only Rallying Cry for the Left
For the first century of its existence, the organized left mobilized around the “labor question”: who determines the what and how of production. For years, though, the Left has abandoned this question for a concern with inequality — at its own peril.
Rashida Tlaib Just Introduced a Landmark Bill to Dramatically Slash Child Poverty
This week, Rashida Tlaib and Mondaire Jones introduced the End Child Poverty Act in Congress. It's a watershed bill that would bring the US in line with social democratic countries that boast the world's lowest child poverty rates.
Friedrich August von Hayek Was an Enemy of Freedom
Today marks 125 years since the birth of Austrian-British economist Friedrich August von Hayek. He theorized the need to keep the masses away from the levers of state power — and did it in the name of defending freedom.
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.
What Black Life Actually Looks Like
For too long, the Left has organized based on caricatures of black political life. If it wants to win, it needs to start recognizing the role of class in black America.
In Defense of “Entitlements”
Liberals fear the term “entitlements,” but that's language the Left should claim.
With Strings Attached
Latin America’s conditional cash transfer programs don’t offer a real answer to poverty and inequity.
How Capitalism Undermines Progressive Education Reform
The basic function of education under capitalism is to produce the next generation of compliant workers. We should fight instead for fully funded schools that empower students — while challenging the capitalist system that undermines progressive education reform.
Read My Lips: $2,000 Checks for All, Now
Democrats promised to provide a near-universal benefit of $2,000 checks. Billionaire-owned media is trying to convince them to ignore history and gut their proposal — a move that would be politically disastrous and worsen Americans’ already brutal suffering.
Feminist Trade Unionists Have Long Fought for Universal Health Care
The battle for universal health care provision in the US has a long history, closely integrated with feminist demands. As far back as World War I, militant unions like the International Ladies’ Garment Workers radicalized the campaign for health care — and came within an inch of victory.
The State Road to Universal Single-Payer Health Care
Unfortunately, any hope for a national Medicare for All is currently off the table. That’s why organizers throughout the country should launch campaigns at the state level to win M4A.
Finland Is Rallying Around a Six-Hour Workday — And So Should We
Finland’s social-democratic prime minister, Sanna Marin, has called for a six-hour workday without loss of pay, allowing Finns more free time and a fairer distribution of employment. As the pandemic forces us to reassess how working life is organized, we should take up labor’s historic call for a shorter workday.
The Strike That Didn’t Change New York
The Chicago teachers’ strike was a victory for workers around the country. But how do we move from homegrown resistance to a national movement that could ignite a shift in public policy?
Comparing the US and Canada Shows Just How Badly America Has Bungled the Pandemic
Canada isn’t the beacon of social democracy that many progressive Americans imagine. But when faced with the coronavirus crisis, the US’s inept political class and for-profit health system couldn't even match a country with a moderate welfare state and functional government.
Nothing Short of Medicare for All in 2020
Bernie Sanders would be the only 2020 presidential candidate who’s taken on health care profiteers in the name of the working class and worked to pass Medicare for All through social movement pressure, not compromise.
The Welfare State Is in Tatters
The US has a whole host of social problems. More public spending would solve many of them.
Everyday Finance Politics
Taking on Wall Street is central to fighting racial and gender inequality.