Using education to entrench privilege

Suppose you are in charge of a community college and there turns out to be a huge demand for math and English classes so that students are being repeatedly turned away because they are full. You might think that it is a good thing that people are seeking more education and that the solution is to open up more classes to meet that demand by (say) hiring more math and English teachers. [Read more…]

The Brazil model for reducing hunger and poverty

The former socialist president of Brazil Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva grew up poor and knew what it was like to be hungry as a child. When he took office in 2003, he said that food was a basic human right and launched the Zero Hunger program. Part of it involves government-run restaurants that serve everyone healthy meals at low prices. This Marketplace report describes one such restaurant: [Read more…]

Unrest in Greece

Recall that the events of the Arab spring were triggered by a 26-year old man in Tunisia setting himself on fire in an act of protest and despair at the conditions in that country.

Now an elderly pensioner in Greece has shot and killed himself near the parliament, reportedly leaving a suicide note accusing the government of reducing his pension to nothing. This has sparked violent demonstrations and clashes with the police. [Read more…]

Amish on the move

I live close to Amish country, with its people who reject electricity and the automobile and live lifestyles largely unchanged from well over a century ago. Drive for a little over half an hour or so, and you enter a world of horses and buggies, men with beards and hats, women with blue dresses and bonnets, and neat, well-maintained houses and barns set in a picture-postcard countryside. [Read more…]