DPI-235 Lecture 16: Prioritarianism, Sufficientarianism, and Left-Libertarianism

Readings:

Derek Parfit. “Equality or Priority?” in The Ideal of Equality, edited by Matthew Clayton and Andrew Williams (Palgrave, 2000). Group 2

Iwao Hirose. “Sufficientarianism,” Chapter 5 of Egalitarianism (Routledge 2014). Group 3

Michael Otsuka. “Self-Ownership and World-Ownership,” Part One of Libertarianism Without Inequality (Oxford University Press, 2005). Group 1

DPI-235 Lecture 15: Neo-Classical Liberalism and Neo-Marxist Liberalism

Readings:

John Tomasi. “Market Democracy” and “Two Concepts of Fairness,” Chapters 4 and 6 of Free Market Fairness (Princeton University Press, 2012). Groups 1-2

Jeffrey Reiman. “The Marxian-Liberal Original Position” and “As Free and as Just as Possible: Capitalism for Marxists, Communism for Liberals,” Chapters 6 and 7 of As Free and as Just as Possible (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014). Group 3

Janet Yellen on Inequality

The Federal Reserve chairwoman gives a big speech, discussed here.

H/t to Jill Kubit

DPI-235 Lecture 14: Capabilities Approach

Readings:

Amartya Sen. “Lives, Freedoms and Capabilities” and “Capabilities and Resources,” Chapters 11 and 12 of The Idea of Justice (Harvard University Press 2009). Groups 2-3

Martha Nussbaum. “Fundamental Entitlements,” Chapter 4 of Creating Capabilities (Harvard University Press, 2011). Group 1

DPI-235 Lecture 13: Desert Theories and Luck Egalitarianism

Readings:

Serena Olsaretti. “Distributive Justice and Compensatory Desert,” Chapter 8 of Justice and Desert, edited by Serena Olsaretti (Oxford University Press, 2003). Group 3

George Sher. “Effort and Imagination,” Chapter 9 of Justice and Desert, edited by Serena Olsaretti (Oxford University Press, 2003). Group 2

Ronald Dworkin. “Sovereign Virtue Revisted” in Ethics 2002. Group 1

Ronald Dworkin. “Equality,” Chapter 16 of Justice for Hedgehogs (Harvard University Press, 2011). Optional

Our Rawlsian Sales-Pitch to the American People

Last Wednesday, I asked you to imagine yourselves as a PR team for President Elizabeth Warren, tasked with selling to the American people a policy that would increase the estate tax and institute a financial transactions tax and, using this money, give cash to American families before the poverty line. Here are the slogans you came up with to accompany your proposals:

-Starting Line

-Freedom Funds

-It's a Hand-up, not a Hand-out

-Get By with a Little Help from My Friends

-Everybody Deserves a Chance at the American Dream

-American Dream version 2.0 - "Walk a Mile" in the shoes of the poor

-Bounce Back Initiative - freedom to thrive

-Empower Act - American Dream for all

H/t to Jennifer Liebschultz 

Economists Who Haven't Read Piketty Criticize Piketty

Matthew Yglesias eviscerates them here.

H/t to Nadir Vissanjy and Jennifer Liebschultz and Stephen Thompson

Personal wealth rising at ‘fastest rate ever recorded,’ study finds

Article here.

From the piece. "The report predicts that private wealth will rise 40 per cent to $369-trillion by 2019, equivalent to an annual growth rate of 7 per cent, outstripping projected GDP growth.”

H/t to Einat Hurvitz

Bill Gates on Piketty

Read it here.

H/t to Emebet Cherenet

And for more on this, check out Gates here.

H/t to Jonathan Skolnick and Cindy Khoo

Losing Faith in the American Dream

From WP. 

H/t to Oscar Mairena

Are We Defining Capitalism Incorrectly?

McKinsey Quarterly thinks so, argued here.

H/t to Matthew Gibson

Russell Brand On Inequality

See it here.

H/t to Mark Tan

DPI-235 Lecture 12: Americans' Views on Welfare and Inequality

Readings:

Leslie McCall. “Americans’ Beliefs About Inequality: What, When, Who and Why?” Chapter 3 of The Undeserving Rich: Americans’ Beliefs About Inequality, Opportunity and Redistribution (Cambridge University Press, 2013). Group 1-2

Martin Gilens. Chapters 1 - 3 of Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy (University of Chicago Press, 2000). Group 3

DPI-235 Lecture 11: Policy and Liberal Egalitarianism

Readings:

Thad Williamson. “Realizing Property-Owning Democracy: A 20-Year Strategy to Create an Egalitarian Distribution of Assets in the United States,” Chapter 11 of Property-Owning Democracy: Rawls and Beyond, edited by Martin O’Neill and Thad Williamson (Wiley-Blackwell 2014). Group 3

Ingrid Robeyns. “Care, Gender, and Property-Owning Democracy,” Chapter 8 of Property-Owning Democracy: Rawls and Beyond, edited by Martin O’Neill and Thad Williamson (Wiley-Blackwell 2014). Groups 1-2

What Wealth Inequality Looks like

H/t to Georgia Hollister Isman

Is Righteousness Killing the World Economy?

Paul Krugman thinks so, argued here.

H/t to Hannah Winnick

End of Life Care Workers

Nice piece by Atul Gawande in Mother Jones, here.

Has Sweden Figured Out How to Address Inequality?

Cathie Jo Martin and Alexander Hertel-Fernandez think so, argued here.

H/t to Danjell Elgebrandt

DPI-235 Lecture 10: The Original Position and Property-Owning Democracy

Readings:

John Rawls. Parts III and IV of Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (Harvard University Press, 2001). Groups 1-3

Martin O’Neill. “Free (and Fair) Markets Without Capitalism: Political Values, Principles of Justice, and Property-Owning Democracy,” Chapter 4 of Property-Owning Democracy: Rawls and Beyond, edited by Martin O’Neill and Thad Williamson (Wiley-Blackwell 2014). Optional

A Welfare State is a Just State

So argues Stuart Wilson, here.

H/t to Wendy Isaack

Krugman on the 'invisible rich'

In the NYT, here.

H/t to Carolyn Anderson and Tarig Hilal

Labor and Capital

The Economist claims that labor is losing out to capital, here.

H/t to Hyun-Kyung Yuh

Inequality and Talents

We Can't Talk About Inequality Without Talking About Talents--by Roger Martin

H/t to Hyun-Kyung Yuh

Occupy and Anarchism

Occupy Wall Street's anarchist roots--by David Graeber.

H/t to Hyun-Kyung Yuh

Visualizing Income Growth in the US

H/t to Oscar Mairena

US Census Data on Income and Poverty

Here.

H/t to Jill Kubit

Reflections on Being Poor

‘Poor people don’t plan long-term. We’ll just get our hearts broken’ -by Linda Tirado in The Guardian.

H/t to Mark Tan.

DPI-235 Lecture 9: Rawls’s Two Principles of Justice

Readings:

John Rawls. Parts I and II of Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (Harvard University Press, 2001). Groups 1-3

Bertil Tungodden and Peter Vallentyne. “Who Are the Least Advantaged?” Chapter 7 of Egalitarianism: New Essays on the Nature and Value of Equality (Oxford University Press, 2007). Optional

DPI-235 Lecture 8: Is the Concentration of Wealth Among the Few Inevitable?

Readings:

Branco Milanovic. “The return of “patrimonial capitalism”: review of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st century.” http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/52384/1/MPRA_paper_52384.pdf Groups 1-3

Thomas Piketty. Chapters 14 and 15 of Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Harvard University Press, 2014). Groups 1-2 Chapter 14; Group 3 Chapter 15