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Matt Bruenig is the founder of People’s Policy Project.
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.
“Premajority unionism” is a new term for corporate campaigns, in which workers try to win concessions from employers using channels outside the workplace, like investor pressure and appeals to the public. Such efforts are not likely to achieve much.
Some economists argue that European countries have lower inequality than the US because they distribute market income much more equally, not because of their welfare states. This is false: the welfare state beats market-income compression.
The policy solutions to poverty are simple: redistribute capital ownership and expand the welfare state.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with SpaceX earlier this week, ruling that the National Labor Relations Board’s current structure is unconstitutional. The decision will keep the agency hamstrung until the case makes its way to the Supreme Court.
In his campaign for NYC mayor, Zohran Mamdani has proposed making city buses fare-free. Critics of the proposal say this would deprive buses of needed funds, but their argument is based on a mistaken understanding of government revenue.
Trump administration officials including RFK Jr want to add work requirements to Medicaid, arguing that there is a major scourge of able-bodied recipients refusing to get jobs. Their case dramatically overstates how many people in this group are not working.
Many conservatives argue that the order in which a person achieves certain life milestones is key to their financial security. The point of the argument is to blame individuals for their poverty.
An anti-union trade association is urging the US attorney general to invalidate 15 previously decided NLRB cases. The group argues the AG can and should declare that certain board precedent is no longer binding, an unprecedented and illegal move.
Republicans are citing a supposed epidemic of young men opting out of work as a rationale for cutting Medicaid. But the data shows that only a small percentage of young men are absent from the labor force in a long-term way.
Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s new book Abundance has plenty of merits, writes Matt Bruenig, but its emphasis on growth and innovation must be married to other egalitarian concerns.
Centrist pundits take issue with Bernie Sanders’s frequent claim that 60% of Americans are living “paycheck to paycheck.” His critics’ attempts to debunk this statistic aren’t convincing.
The problem of case backlogs at the National Labor Relations Board goes deeper than budget shortfalls. Without serious penalties for employers who break the law, the board will continue to be hampered by a pileup of charges.
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.
The National Labor Relations Board has been a bright spot for progressives. Don’t think Trump’s team hasn’t noticed.
Yesterday Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema voted to block the reappointment of Democrat Lauren McFerran to the National Labor Relations Board. This means that when Donald Trump takes office, he can immediately establish a GOP majority on the board.
Since the shooting of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, a number of pundits have claimed that the main cause of exorbitant US health care costs is overcharging by providers, not health insurance companies. The argument doesn’t hold up: insurers are mostly to blame.
The Biden administration’s more aggressive approach to antitrust has been much discussed by proponents and critics alike. Yet the administration’s regulatory moves have really been small-bore tweaks around the edges, with little impact felt by voters.
Donald Trump will probably sack National Labor Relations Board general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, who has been friendly to unions, on day one of his presidency.
Last month, the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against the Audubon Society concerning treatment of its employees. In a wildly aggressive response, the nonprofit is arguing that the NLRB is unconstitutional.