it does not matter if capital is held by private corporations or by the state or by a political party. The end result remains the same. The Earth bears the scars from this brand of economic efficiency. And people live within that growing scar tissue.
Where mankind stands in the robot age will depend on the vitality of democracy when the transition happens.
First, there's plenty of money for everyone to get the benefits that they want. There's absolutely no need to have debates about raising taxes, deficits or MMT. All such arguments are distractions. If we want to pay for things like Medicare for All, Free College, or the Green New Deal, we need look no further than the coffers of the Transnational Corporate Class.
A Welterweight Fight! At Best. The other day I entered into a Facebook argument (I spend an inordinate amount of time arguing on Facebook) about the comparison between President Obama and Ronald Reagan with regard to their economic achievements. The argument began from a posting of an article by Adam Hartung in Forbes Magazine, "Obama... Continue Reading →
A thought on poverty from our discussion in Social Problems last week Note: The following post was originally published at The Living Text Blog, my college sociology forum. I thought it would go well here at the Mad Sociologist. I wanted to comment on something that came up in our discussion on poverty last week…then... Continue Reading →
Show them this graph! We are being lied to by the right wing when they say, as conservative leaders like Ron Paul insists, that raising the minimum wage costs jobs. The above graph shows all of the times that the minimum wage was at least partially raised,according to the Department of Labor, corresponding to the... Continue Reading →
Why Austerian Economic Policies are not "mistaken." They are strategic! Contemporary Keynesian economists are beside themselves. I have an image of Paul Krugman and Dean Baker et al. trying to cover the bald spots from where they've pulled the hair out of their heads. They just can't understand why, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary,... Continue Reading →
No matter how much the conservatives in Congress and pundits across the spectrum want this to seem like some kind of colossal showdown, the bottom line is—as always—the bottom line. Why do I seem so confident in the prediction that the debt ceiling will be raised? First, raising the debt ceiling is what the government... Continue Reading →
Which Means that 90% of Americans Don't Know What They are Talking About! Most of this data comes from those left wing hippies at the St. Louis FED. Click Here for Source for Chart Above Guy Who Doesn't Know How To Read Data: "Look, the federal deficit is going up!" Guy Who Knows How to... Continue Reading →
A Commentary by Sociologist Richard Appelbaum Figure 1: Click to View the Source and the Video Some interesting questions. Of course, I would like more commentary on the changing nature of power relations in this transitory stage.
The Mad Sociologist Blog 