earlier series on John Maynard Keynes’s view of the aftermath of WWI and the failure of the Treaty of Versailles to create a lasting peace, the remarks of political scientist John Mearsheimer give a perspective on the Russia/Ukraine conflict that you won’t hear on the news. … More The Realist View of Ukraine/Russia: John Mearsheimer on the “Thucydides View”
Resonating with my earlier series on John Maynard Keynes’s view of the aftermath of WWI and the failure of the Treaty of Versailles to create a lasting peace, the remarks of political scientist John Mearsheimer give a perspective on the Russia/Ukraine conflict that you won’t hear on the news. … More The Realist View of Ukraine/Russia: John Mearsheimer on the “Thucydides View”
In this concluding segment from the 2021 Summer Seminar on Distributism, I discuss why it is so hard to imagine actually changing the economy in any meaningful way. Our capacity for collective action has been hollowed out and replaced by an expressive identity politics that cannot satisfy but works wonders to keep us all working and buying. It very effectively stops any real change from happening. The seemingly radical idea that contemporary protests are largely ineffectual and should be replaced by direct action is introduced. … More Culture War Futility, Why Self Expression Beats Action (Distributism 5-Audio)
In this concluding segment from the 2021 Summer Seminar on Distributism, I discuss why it is so hard to imagine actually changing the economy in any meaningful way. Our capacity for collective action has been hollowed out and replaced by an expressive identity politics that cannot satisfy but works wonders to keep us all working and buying. It very effectively stops any real change from happening. The seemingly radical idea that contemporary protests are largely ineffectual and should be replaced by direct action is introduced. … More Culture War Futility: Why Self Expression Beats Action (Distributism 5-Video)
In this video, I discuss Ch. 4 of Guy Standing’s The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class, which is on migration. Many in developed countries with large numbers of migrant laborers blame these laborers for taking jobs and reducing their economic prospects. Looking deeper, though, we see that they are there because globalized economic interests want the ultimate flexible and vulnerable labor pool and governments make sure they get them. Many leaders and parties talk about wanting their citizens to have good jobs but their actions and the results of their policies say otherwise. Ultimately no one wins in the current system, certainly not illegal migrants living in serfdom to survive. To get to the heart of the problem, we have to look at who/what benefits from large numbers of legal and illegal migrants. … More Migrants and Underemployment in Context: What’s Really Going On? (Precariat 5-Audio)
In this video, I discuss Ch. 4 of Guy Standing’s The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class, which is on migration. Many in developed countries with large numbers of migrant laborers blame these laborers for taking jobs and reducing their economic prospects. Looking deeper, though, we see that they are there because globalized economic interests want the ultimate flexible and vulnerable labor pool and governments make sure they get them. Many leaders and parties talk about wanting their citizens to have good jobs but their actions and the results of their policies say otherwise. Ultimately no one wins in the current system, certainly not illegal migrants living in serfdom to survive. To get to the heart of the problem, we have to look at who/what benefits from large numbers of legal and illegal migrants. … More Migrants and Underemployment in Context: What’s Really Going On? (Precariat 5-video)
Guy Standing, author of The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class answers this question this way: because there just aren’t enough stable, well paying jobs in the new economy. In this video I discuss some of the realities of university education today, especially the trend towards trying to sell education as a commodity with a promise of being qualified for specific jobs. The watering down of education is a serious concern of Standing. This education saddles students with debt, can’t necessarily deliver the job they were trained for, and meantime has not encouraged them to think critically and creatively but to keep their heads down and do what’s required, even if it’s not at all what they wanted. The Precariat is therefore deprived of a key element in achieving some sort of political influence and the ability to push back–a good education. … More Why is My University Degree Not Enough? (4-Audio)
Guy Standing, author of The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class answers this question this way: because there just aren’t enough stable, well paying jobs in the new economy. In this video I discuss some of the realities of university education today, especially the trend towards trying to sell education as a commodity with a promise of being qualified for specific jobs. The watering down of education is a serious concern of Standing. This education saddles students with debt, can’t necessarily deliver the job they were trained for, and meantime has not encouraged them to think critically and creatively but to keep their heads down and do what’s required, even if it’s not at all what they wanted. The Precariat is therefore deprived of a key element in achieving some sort of political influence and the ability to push back–a good education. … More Why is My University Degree Not Enough? (4-Video)
In the first chapter of Guy Standing’s The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class, we learn his definition of the precariat and how this class fits into the overall class picture. Flexibility (any time, anywhere, any job, for any length of time) turns out to be a prominent feature of the precariat experience. With no incentive to identify with their work, they are anxious and alienated, and especially since they are not a unified class, they are susceptible to propaganda that seeks to point the finger at other vulnerable groups, blaming them rather than the economic system that is using them as “human capital.” … More ‘Just in Time’ Humans? The Precariat (Guy Standing, 2-Audio)
In the first chapter of Guy Standing’s The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class, we learn his definition of the precariat and how this class fits into the overall class picture. Flexibility (any time, anywhere, any job, for any length of time) turns out to be a prominent feature of the precariat experience. With no incentive to identify with their work, they are anxious and alienated, and especially since they are not a unified class, they are susceptible to propaganda that seeks to point the finger at other vulnerable groups, blaming them rather than the economic system that is using them as “human capital.” … More ‘Just in Time’ Humans? The Precariat (Guy Standing, 2)
Political Philosophy 