If a subtitled foreign film has a shot at winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards, Parasite might be the one to do it. The dark comedy by acclaimed South Korean director Bong Joon-ho is well-scripted, universally well-acted, and carries a thought-provoking message about inequality, human dignity, and social justice.
Are policies to reduce inequality beneficial to those who are least fortunate? Sometimes they are; sometimes they are not.
One of the most frequent shortcomings of capitalism cited by capitalism’s critics is inequality.
Bodes well for an era of promoting tolerance but casts a shadow over the prospects for alleviating global poverty.
The quality of economic journalism in the United States is terrible. Day after day, journalists write about the causes and consequences of economic conditions and events without understanding the underlying economics of the situation, and their articles are, as a rule, simply bunk. Here is an example. I have not examined the actual report…
Read More »
This past year I was on the academic job market, applying for faculty positions at a variety of colleges and universities. As a woman making a critical career move, I’ve been up to my eyeballs in cover letters, resumes, statistics about cost of living, state income taxes, health insurance, and, of course, salary information….
Read More »
The movie adaptation of 50 Shades of Grey by author E.L. James swept its opening weekend competition and has generated blockbuster revenues of over $133 million, making it the top grossing movie of 2015. Controversy has come with it, as would be expected from any movie breaking through traditional cultural taboos. Combine that with…
Read More »
The European Court of Justice has just issued an opinion holding that obesity can be a disability requiring employers to “take appropriate measures . . . to enable a person with a disability to have access to, participate in, or advance in employment, or to undergo training, unless such measures would impose a disproportionate burden…
Read More »
In “The Communist Manifesto,” Marx and Engels tell us that “[t]he history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” In a sense, I agree, although I define the struggling classes differently than they did. In any event, it seems clear enough from what we know about the past ten thousand…
Read More »
The protests that began in Ferguson against a government and a legal system that systematically work to oppress minorities and the disadvantaged have continued, now inflamed by the decision not to indict the New York police officer who killed Eric Gardner by placing him in a chokehold (because he was suspected of selling cigarettes)….
Read More »
