The meritocracy sounds good but like all centralized policy is subject to overemphasize some objectives and disregard ingredients that have more influence than they realize. Intelligence may be an important attribute but there are other character traits that may be responsible for the outcome we attribute to intelligence. Steve Jobs was not the result of an IQ test.
Read More
“The extraordinary postcrash prosperity of the precrash superrich is altogether new in our history. Near-zero interest rates are a godsend to the wealthy, inflating their real estate, stock portfolios, bond portfolios, private equity holdings, and art collections. Middle-class and blue-collar Americans, meanwhile, haven’t made much progress, and many are worse off. Inequality has increased.”
Read More
from The Wall Street Journal by Gregory Clark
“As a bizarre consequence of this pattern, African-Americans, who have low levels of net worth on average, are the social group for which inherited wealth represents the largest share of their net worth. Another odd implication is that inheritances tend to make overall wealth-holding more equal. Were inherited wealth to be completely abolished, the wealth of the poor would decline more than that of the rich. Inherited wealth is the great equalizer. Who knew?”
Read More
He avoided the accumulation of economic data, believing the cost of accumulating outweighed its value. He felt such data was used to enable economic planning which he opposed, and because it instilled a false sense of certainty about outcomes. Cowperthwaite governed from principles, not data.
Read More
by Henry Oliner
The estate tax is less of a transfer from the rich to the poor than it is a transfer from one group of wealthy to other wealthy special interests. The great beneficiaries of estate taxes are tax lawyers and accountants, insurance companies, and wealthier businesses who use the pressure of the estate taxes to acquire other firms and grow larger.
Read More
The point is that the subject is much more complicated than most are willing to accept. Even the most respected journalists are seduced more by the political angle than accuracy and open mindedness. This travesty is multiplied thousands of times on the social media by the lazy who read for confirmation rather than information.
Read More
“Nature smiles at the union of freedom and equality in our utopias. For freedom and equality are sworn and everlasting enemies, and when one prevails the other dies. “
Read More
In The World is Never Finished Kevin Williamson addresses the fear of AI on employment . But if we are going to look backward, let’s look back even farther. The belief that the remorseless efficiency of capitalist production will lead
Read More
from Foreign Affairs, What Kills Inequality- Redistribution’s Violent History By Timur Kuran In his 1982 book, The Rise and Decline of Nations, the economist Mancur Olson answered that question by arguing that rather than handicapping the economies of the Axis powers, catastrophic defeat actually benefited
Read More
From Holman Jenkins at the WSJ, The Extremist Show Is Just Starting The city is a Democratic town, run by a Democratic machine. Its elections are typically settled in a Democratic primary. The GOP is a non-factor. Of the three
Read More
Thomas Piketty’s Capital in The Twenty First Century, has spawned a cottage industry of dissent. Piketty uses masses of data to illuminate a growth in inequality, that he surmises is an inevitable result of capitalism and can only be resolved
Read More
Thomas Piketty’s Capital in The Twenty First Century, has spawned a cottage industry of dissent. Piketty uses masses of data to illuminate a growth in inequality, that he surmises is an inevitable result of capitalism and can only be resolved
Read More
Thomas Piketty’s Capital in The Twenty First Century, has spawned a cottage industry of dissent. Piketty uses masses of data to illuminate a growth in inequality, that he surmises is an inevitable result of capitalism and can only be resolved
Read More
Thomas Piketty’s Capital in The Twenty First Century, has spawned a cottage industry of dissent. Piketty uses masses of data to illuminate a growth in inequality, that he surmises is an inevitable result of capitalism and can only be resolved
Read More
Thomas Piketty’s Capital in The Twenty First Century, has spawned a cottage industry of dissent. Piketty uses masses of data to illuminate a growth in inequality, that he surmises is an inevitable result of capitalism and can only be resolved
Read More
Thomas Piketty’s Capital in The Twenty First Century, has spawned a cottage industry of dissent. Piketty uses masses of data to illuminate a growth in inequality, that he surmises is an inevitable result of capitalism and can only be resolved
Read More
Inequality is a core political controversy, usually referring to inequality in wealth or income, concepts which are not synonymous. We tend to equate inequality in income with inequality in power, but that does not always hold true. If it was
Read More
from “The Inequality Trap: Fighting Capitalism Instead of Poverty (UTP Insights)” by William Watson “In sum, we should worry less about inequality, which is a distraction from what ought to be our true targets, poverty and privilege, and we should
Read More
from Why Corporate Leaders Became Progressive Activists by Kevin Williamson: If you have not read it, spare a moment for William H. Whyte’s Cold War classic. In the 1950s, Whyte, a writer for Fortune, interviewed dozens of important CEOs and
Read More
from Kevin Williamson in National Review, Plans, Trains, and Automobiles Question: Do we want our health-care system to be more like the spontaneous order that produces both awesome cars and terrible traffic, or do we want it to be more like
Read More
Recent Comments