Flint: An American Failure
Published: | 9:25 pm | Posted in: Neoliberalism
The story of Flint—the Michigan city in which people were harmed by drinking water that contained lead and lethal bacteria—is a warning to all struggling US communities that confront disinvestment, declining population, excessive financial focus, incompetent leadership, nontransparent government, and racism. Flint is also a tale of a persevering community, good doctors and scientists, and […]
How social democrats may become reluctant radicals: Thomas Piketty’s Capital and Wolfgang Streeck’s Buying Time
Published: | 6:23 pm | Posted in: Neoliberalism
Abstract The continuing ramifications of the financial crisis of 2007–2008 have forced social scientists to raise fundamental questions about the relationship between capitalism, democracy and inequality. In particular, Thomas Piketty’s Capital and Wolfgang Streeck’s Buying Time focus on, respectively, the economic and the political contradictions of capitalistic societies. Piketty argues that capitalism naturally tends towards […]
Health Spending Growth: Still Facing A Triangle Of Painful Choices
Published: | 1:21 am | Posted in: Health Care Policy and Reform, Neoliberalism
In the four years immediately following the recession (2010 through 2013), health spending grew at a historically low average annual rate of 3.6 percent, about the same as gross domestic product (GDP). This era was interrupted in 2014 with the advent of expanded coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—the newly insured used more care […]