inequality 
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SOURCE: Vox
2/25/2021
The Future of the Middle Class Depends on Student Loan Forgiveness
Writer Anne Helen Petersen says that understanding the broken student loan system requires rejecting the narrative of individual choice and focusing on the history and social effects of debt.
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SOURCE: The Nation
2/23/2021
The Broken System: What Comes After Meritocracy?
by Elizabeth Anderson
Philosopher Elizabeth Anderson reviews Michael Sandel's critique of meritocracy, a book that locates an explanation for the Trumpian moment in the rise of competitive individualism in the platforms of both major parties.
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SOURCE: New York Times
2/13/2021
The Way Out of America’s Zero-Sum Thinking on Race and Wealth
by Heather McGhee
White resentment is a key political factor in America's stingy public sector; post-WWII support for social welfare, government intervention in the economy, and public investment receded after the civil rights movement demanded "jobs and freedom" for all. It's time to replace zero-sum thinking with a concept of social solidarity.
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SOURCE: TomDispatch
2/16/2021
Whose Rights Matter in Pandemic America?
by Liz Theoharis
In Cold War America, political movements that challenged the oppression of poverty were suppressed in favor of the formal ideal of civil rights. A leader of the revived Poor People's Campaign first envisioned by MLK before his death says that history must be addressed and undone.
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2/14/2021
King’s Final Book: Both Political Roadmap and Passionate Sermon
by Fred Zilian
As Black History Month unfolds amid an atmosphere of crisis and division like that which prevailed in 1968, it's worth revisiting Martin Luther King's publication that year of "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community" – a call for reordering national priorities toward justice through politics and for renewed spiritual and ethical dedication to shared humanity.
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SOURCE: TomDispatch
2/11/2021
Beyond Donald Trump: When Poisons Curdle
by Andrew Bacevich
The writer regrets not absorbing the message of MLK's prophetic "Beyond Vietnam" sermon when it was delivered in 1967. But the years since have shown he wasn't alone, and the nation's failure to reflect on the interconnection of racism, materialism and militarism accounts for the dire state of affairs reflected in the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
2/3/2021
The Commonality between Biden’s Education Secretary and Betsy Devos is a Warning
by Adam Laats
Public education has long been envisioned as a black box that can fix the social problems created by inequality in the United States. When it has failed to perform this miracle, the education system has been subjected to successive waves of wrenching reform. It's time to fix the society outside the school walls.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
1/28/2021
Fixing the Economy Requires Giving Power to People Who Answer to the Public
by Jonathan Levy
The economy does not exist on a plane separate from politics; the power of the Federal Reserve for the past four decades has been directed at increasing inequality and the power of the financial sector.
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SOURCE: Africa Is A Country
1/20/2021
Reflections On An Imploding Empire
by Russell Rickford
Progressive dissidents must meet the moment of Biden's inauguration by not settling for what liberal politicians offer on economic justice, human rights, environment, labor, and health.
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
12/29/2020
The Life in "The Simpsons" Is No Longer Attainable
In the 1990s, "The Simpsons" drew humor by putting bizarre dysfunction in the context of middle class suburban banality. Today it's the idea of homeownership paid for by a stable single income that seems outlandish.
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SOURCE: Boston Review
12/21/2020
A More Perfect Meritocracy
by Agnes Callard
Two new books take aim at the moral failures of meritocracy. But we can advocate for a more just society without giving up on merit.
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12/20/2020
Can Biden Broaden Our American Dream?
by Walter G. Moss
Can a program of national service create pathways to individual opportunity while also building the social cohesion America needs to recover?
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SOURCE: TomDispatch
12/13/2020
Pandemic Lessons for the Rest of Us, Or: Vaccine Thinking Applied to All of American Life
by Liz Theoharis
The quick and much-welcomed development of a coronavirus vaccine is highlighting what Martin Luther King, Jr. observed in 1967: that American abandonment amid abundance is a question of political choice, not the society's capacity to create humane solutions to large problems.
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SOURCE: Boston Review
11/19/2020
Against Returning to Normal
by David Walsh
Liberal pleas to return to a "normal" defined by bipartisan consensus ignore the long legacy of ideological conflict and the pursuit of division as a political strategy by the conservative movement.
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SOURCE: Aeon
10/2/2020
This Vanishing Moment and Our Vanishing Future: John Hersey, Hiroshima, and the End of World
Postwar prosperity depended on a truce between capitalist growth and democratic fairness. Is it possible to get it back?
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SOURCE: TPM
9/28/2020
The Democrats Now Face A Historic Opportunity For Structural Change
by Gregory P. Downs
Democrats have seen the consequences of their caution in 2009. In 2021, they may have the opportunity to learn from the boldness of the 1880s.
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SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
9/29/2020
When the Privileged Don’t Pay their Fair Share in Taxes, it Can Spark Revolution
by Christine Adams
The unfairness of the tax system, especially as the French government faced bankruptcy in the late 1780s, was one of the factors that triggered revolution in 1789.
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SOURCE: New York Times
9/27/2020
Is Amy Coney Barrett Joining a Supreme Court Built for the Wealthy?
by Kim Phillips-Fein
Amy Coney Barrett's judicial record indicates she would help the court move back to the Lochner era by crippling regulation and ruling against labor unions.
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SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
9/24/2020
Why Supermarkets Are Powerful Flash Points In Racial Politics
by Tracey Deutsch and James McElroy
In addition to selling food, grocery stores have also preserved a social order that treats shoppers of different races differently, dispensing hierarchy along with food — and, in fact, creating it.
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SOURCE: Boston Review
9/9/2020
Neoliberal Hong Kong Is Our Future, Too
by Macabe Keliher
While orthodox economists like to point to Hong Kong as an ideal free market, the social consequences have been disastrous. Inequality is rising, wages are declining and working hours increasing, overall economic opportunity is dwindling, and housing is so unaffordable that office workers sleep in McDonalds. Is it any wonder that the streets are now burning?
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