Economics

Everyone is Waiting For You to Make a Mistake: Neoliberalism and Socially Prescribed Perfectionism

February 9, 2018 culture, Current Events, Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology

“Self-oriented perfectionism is the tendency to hold oneself to an unrealistically high standard, while other-oriented perfectionism means having unrealistic expectations of others. But “socially prescribed perfectionism is the most debilitating of the three dimensions of perfectionism,” Curran and Hall contend. It describes the feeling of paranoia and anxiety engendered by the persistent — and not…

Anyone Can Get Rich in America: The Polka King, Capitalism, and the American Dream

January 22, 2018 Economics, humanities, Philosophy, Theory, Thoughts

I watched a really funny movie on Netflix over the weekend called The Polka King. (**SPOILERS AHEAD!!**) Beside the fact that the movie takes place in the town where I went to high school (Hazleton, Pennsylvania) and the fact that it has lots of polka music (which I fondly remember my grandmother listening to…

Thoughts on Original Sin, Utopianism, & Marxism

August 3, 2017 Art, Christianity, Current Events, Economics, humanities, Philosophy, Politics

“The human being is in the most literal sense a political animal, not merely a gregarious animal, but an animal which can individuate itself only in the midst of society.” –Karl Marx I just listened to a couple episodes of a podcast (episode i, episode ii) that I recently discovered, which is distributed by the Christian…

Private Regimes of Power or How The Workplace is Governed

July 19, 2017 Current Events, Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Thoughts

“There is a condition called hemiagnosia, whose sufferers cannot perceive one half of their bodies. A large class of libertarian-leaning thinkers and politicians, with considerable public following, resemble patients with this condition: They cannot perceive half of the economy — the half that takes place beyond the market, after the employment contract is accepted, where…

The “Makers” And The “Takers”

June 30, 2017 Current Events, Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Theology

“In Paul Ryan’s formulation, society is divided between the “makers” and the “takers.” The “takers” are those who benefit from public social programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, college-tuition assistance, and so on. In Ryan’s world, these people are a drag on the “makers” who are taxed to pay for the programs. Our…

The Paradox of “Freedom From” Thinking

June 5, 2017 Current Events, Economics, Philosophy, Thoughts

“It is only in the past few decades that scholars have come to grips with how slavery and capitalism intertwined. But for the 18th-century French thinkers who laid the foundations of laissez-faire capitalism, it made perfect sense to associate the slave trade with free enterprise. Their writings, which inspired the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith’s Wealth…

Joe Rogan Drops Capitalist Truth Bombs!

May 22, 2017 culture, Current Events, Economics, Thoughts

“Right-wing ideologies are deliberate and conscious efforts that seek to “defend power and privilege against movements demanding freedom and equality.”” As much as I try to avoid them, occasionally a video or article comes across my radar that makes me shake my head in disgust. The latest one is a video clip of Joe Rogan’s…

System Change vs. System Reform

January 10, 2017 Current Events, Economics, Philosophy

“What differentiates system change from reforms? Reforms refer to government interventions that still leave employers in the exclusive position to make the basic enterprise decisions: what, how and where to produce and what to do with profits. Reforms include minimum wage laws, redistributive tax structures, and enterprises owned and operated by the government. They range…

Corporations Don’t Have Values; They Have an Image: Trump’s Problematic Corporate Approach to Governing

December 13, 2016 Current Events, Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Thoughts

“Corporations don’t have values; they have an image…Their main objective is to make money.” —Merry Mahaffey It’s not uncommon for corporations to espouse “corporate values.” We’ve all heard this phrase before. But it should be obvious to anyone that these “values” are little more than meaningless slogans or tag-lines; they’re not meant to be taken…

Education Is Not Preparation For Life; Education Is Life Itself: Reflections on Election 2016

November 21, 2016 Christianity, culture, Current Events, Economics, Philosophy, Psychology, Theology, Thoughts

“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” —John Dewey I haven’t really written much about the 2016 U.S. presidential election of Donald Trump because it’s been an overall hugely depressing nightmare for me. I have had a lot of in-person chats, Facebook discussions, and have also read a TON of articles, essays,…