Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Elsewhere

  • Nick Hanauer argues for some policies that postulate:
    • Income distribution is not a matter of supply and demand or any other sort of economic natural laws.
    • That a more egalitarian distribution of income leads to an increased demand and generalized shared prosperity.
  • Tom Palley contrasts neoliberalism with an economic theory with an approach with another "theory of income distribution and its theory of aggregate employment determination".
  • Elizabeth Bruenig contrasts liberalism with the the left.
  • Paul Blest laughs at whining neoliberals
  • Chris Lehmann considers how the turn of the US's Democratic Party to neoliberalism lowers its electoral prospects.

Is the distinction between democratic socialism and social democracy of no practical importance at the moment in any nation's politics? I think of the difference in two ways. First, in the United States in the 1970s, leftists had an argument. Self-defined social democrats became Neoconservatives, while democratic socialists found the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Second, both are reformists approaches to capitalism, advocating tweaks to, as Karl Popper argued for, prevent unnecessary pain. But social democrats have no ultimate goal of replacing capitalism, while democratic socialists want to end up with a transformed system.

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