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from Conservative Intelligence Briefing
President Trump Just Put Attorney General Sessions On Notice
President Trump took to Twitter to warn Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Department of Justice he will intervene if they fail to make documents available. It’s unclear what specific documents the President was referring to.
North Korea Announces Release Of American Prisoners In Major Win For President Trump
Three Americans who have been held hostage by North Korea are coming home because of President Trump, reports say. North Korea is releasing the prisoners in advance of a historic meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Clean Energy Industry Increasingly Supports GOP, Red States Seeing More Jobs
A fascinating report from Reuters today notes that power players in the clean energy industry are showing increased financial support for the GOP: “U.S. solar and wind energy companies have donated far more money to Republicans than Democrats in congressional races this election cycle, according to a Reuters analysis of campaign finance data, an unprecedented tilt to the right for an industry long associated with the environmental left.”
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from HumanProgress.org
Education Website
Income Inequality: When Does It Matter?
Following the outbreak of the Great Recession, income inequality became a focal concern of those who feel that the market economy has let them down. In 2011, “We are the 99 percent” became a unifying slogan of the Occupy Wall Street movement. In 2013, the U.S. President Barrack Obama described income inequality as the “defining challenge of our time.” A year later, Pope Francis called for a “legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the state,” while Marxist economist Thomas Piketty tried to supply the movement for greater income equality with intellectual ammunition in his book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century. The elevation of Donald Trump to the U.S. Presidency impeded the movement’s momentum, but concern over income inequality did not disappear. Just this week, to give another example, The New York Times ran an article titled Happy Birthday, Karl Marx. You Were Right! According to Jason Barker, an associate professor of philosophy at Kyung Hee University in South Korea and author of the novel Marx Returns, “educated liberal opinion is today more or less unanimous in its agreement that Marx’s basic thesis – that capitalism is driven by a deeply divisive class struggle in which the ruling-class minority appropriates the surplus labor of the working-class majority as profit – is correct.” Contrary to Professor Barker, agreement on Marx’s basic thesis is no more unanimous than the liberal spectrum of opinion is monolithic. The Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker, for example, has examined income inequality at considerable length in his recent book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. Pinker questioned many of the rationales for treating income inequality as the “defining challenge of our time” and concluded that “income inequality is not a fundamental component of well-being.” Those who are concerned with income inequality should be aware of Pinker’s arguments – and engage with them in a serious manner. It is crucial not to confuse income inequality and poverty.
Income Inequality: When Does It Matter?
Following the outbreak of the Great Recession, income inequality became a focal concern of those who feel that the market economy has let them down. In 2011, “We are the 99 percent” became a unifying slogan of the Occupy Wall Street movement. In 2013, the U.S. President Barrack Obama described income inequality as the “defining challenge of our time.” A year later, Pope Francis called for a “legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the state,” while Marxist economist Thomas Piketty tried to supply the movement for greater income equality with intellectual ammunition in his book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century. The elevation of Donald Trump to the U.S. Presidency impeded the movement’s momentum, but concern over income inequality did not disappear. Just this week, to give another example, The New York Times ran an article titled Happy Birthday, Karl Marx. You Were Right! According to Jason Barker, an associate professor of philosophy at Kyung Hee University in South Korea and author of the novel Marx Returns, “educated liberal opinion is today more or less unanimous in its agreement that Marx’s basic thesis – that capitalism is driven by a deeply divisive class struggle in which the ruling-class minority appropriates the surplus labor of the working-class majority as profit – is correct.” Contrary to Professor Barker, agreement on Marx’s basic thesis is no more unanimous than the liberal spectrum of opinion is monolithic. The Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker, for example, has examined income inequality at considerable length in his recent book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. Pinker questioned many of the rationales for treating income inequality as the “defining challenge of our time” and concluded that “income inequality is not a fundamental component of well-being.” Those who are concerned with income inequality should be aware of Pinker’s arguments – and engage with them in a serious manner. It is crucial not to confuse income inequality and poverty.
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
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