Politics
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On AIDS and drought in Malawi.
It’s hard to save the forests for some nebulous future when you might die of AIDS (or even rabies!) within the year.
a history of violence, AIDS, charcoal, climate change, deforestation, drought, health care, health insurance, HIV, HIV epidemic, illegal charcoal production, inequality, infectious disease, Malawi, medical care, Peace Corps, poverty, rabies, rabies vaccine, reparations, the historical roots of inequality, wealth begets wealth, zero-parent households
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On killer cops and killer prosecutors.
At Bloomington’s Black Lives Matter rally (organized by high school students!), I walked by an older man holding a Sharpied sign with “START PROSECUTING KILLER COPS.” I nodded at him and smiled. My daughter, riding on my chest in a giraffe-patterned carrier, craned her neck to see what I was smiling about, then tucked her…
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On free-market capitalism, political spending, and Jane Mayer’s ‘Dark Money.’
Everybody knew that politicians could be bought… well, academics can be, too.
campaign finance, climate change, Dark Money, David Koch, economic policy, environmental regulations, Evicted, fiscal policy, free markets, global warming, government intervention, Jane Mayer, Koch brothers, libertarianism, Matthew Desmond, negative externalities, political spending, progressive taxation, Robert Reich, Saving Capitalism, subsidies for the rich, tax, tragedy of the commons
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On Edin & Shaefer’s ‘$2.00 a Day.’
You can’t learn what it takes to survive poverty when you think about people as numbers.
$2.00 a Day, budget, ethnography, Evicted, extreme poverty, food deserts, food insecurity, food stamps, H. Luke Shaefer, Hand to Mouth, high cost of rent in the United States, Kathyrn Edin, Linda Tirado, Living on Almost Nothing in America, Matthew Desmond, Paul Theroux, people want jobs, poverty, PTSD, sexual assault, SNAP, The Hypocrisy of Helping the Poor
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On bistability.
When small changes lead to bigger change, it’s tricky to predict what will happen… that’s why climate change is scary.
alcoholism, animal emissions, bistability, Bloomington, carbon emisions, climate change, climate simulation, contribution of animal agriculture to global climate change, eat more vegetables!, expansion of empty space, feedback loops, global warming, how much warming can our planet safely tolerate?, it takes money to make money, lightswitch rave, positive feedback, switch-like behavior, the rich get richer, underwater currents, United Nations conference on climate change, weather
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On citizenship.
Without citizenship — without, as per Hannah Arendt, “the right to have rights” — people are buffeted by the political whims of whatever nation they might find themselves in. Syrian refugees, for instance, might expect a certain treatment based on their status as humans, but they aren’t officially documented Europeans. Even when they safely reach…
Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, buying citizenship, climate change, cost of U.S. citizenship, deportation, Henry David Thoreau, human rights, illusion of meritocracy, inequality, New York Times book review, political philosophy, privilege, property rights, purchased citizenship, refugee crisis, Richard Bellamy, Robert Reich, Saving Capitalism, Syrian refugees, The Cosmopolites, the social contract, undocumented immigrants, unequal justice for the poor, Walden
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On paying teachers for value added.
Pay the best teachers more? Sure! But are the best teachers the ones who program their students to fill in the right bubbles?
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On medical spending.
We spend huge amounts on medical care in the U.S., but cheaper interventions would improve people’s lives more.
Frank Brown Cloud 