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Channel: aveekbhattacharya – Social Problems Are Like Maths
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Review of Dreamers

I’ve written a review of Dreamers by Snigdha Poonam for the LSE Review of Books. It’s a fascinating and important book, so I’ve had a go at drawing out some of its political implications in the review:...

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Utilitarianism and anti-social preferences

I’ve been troubled this week by Arindrajit Dube’s anecdote about the Nobel-prize winning economist Gary Becker: In case you don’t speak economics, what this means is that Becker thought we can’t say...

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Listicicle

This is getting to be a tradition now. As in 2016, and 2017, I have decided to rank my favourite things of the year. To be eligible, I had to discover or experience the thing for the first time in...

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Does it matter whether rich people really like money?

Responding to the ongoing debate among economists about Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal of a 70% tax rate on the very richest Americans, Chris Dillow  says: “I’ve never been...

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The morality of management

It’s hardy a novel or arresting insight to say positions of power bring with them greater moral responsibilities. It’s Spider-Man’s catchphrase for goodness’ sake. The reason  is obvious: a powerful...

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Is meritocracy efficient?

James Kirkup’s recent piece on social mobility, ‘Too posh to fail’,  is an interesting contribution to the debate because it begins to grapple with the fact that intergenerational inequality is not...

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Votes for children: going back to first principles

I’ve been planning to write something for Justice Everywhere on the arguments around lowering the voting age for a few months now. Then Nicolas Brando beat me to it, in a very clearly argued post...

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English student loans are a weirdly designed tax

Despite being called ‘tuition fees’, the system of financing university education in England operates more like an extra income tax on graduates. For most students, the government pays universities up...

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Book review: The Community of Advantage

I’ve written a review of Robert Sugden’s book, The Community of Advantage, for the LSE Review of Books. Here’s an extract: The Community of Advantage is a rich and wide-ranging work, touching on...

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Private schools and freedom

Some Labour activists have called for the abolition of private schools. According to Chris Dillow: The case for not doing so is simple – freedom. My instinct is that folk should be free to spend their...

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Are partisan cues necessarily a bad thing?

I spent a couple of days last week at the Scottish National Party (SNP) conference for the day job. One of the things that struck me while I was there was just how strong partisan cues are. Ordinary...

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Should governments care about the fertility gap?

Cross-posted from Justice Everywhere In most rich countries, and increasingly in low and middle income countries, there is a ‘fertility gap’: people say they want to have more children than they end up...

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Is gender the next party dividing line?

A few days before the recent UK General Election, I read Colin Crouch’s essay ‘Post-Democracy and Populism’. Crouch ends the piece by considering whether the political centre and left have any social...

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The best New Year’s Resolution I ever made

Tonight, I intend to sit each one of you down, and tell you in my own words, exactly how much you mean to me – Frasier Crane, Frasier Series 5 Episode 9 (‘Perspectives on Christmas’) This year, I think...

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What’s new? I’m listing. Feeling blue? I’m listing

My 4th annual list of things I enjoyed over the course of the year. Here are some of my favourite things that I experienced for the first time in 2019. You might want to read this alongside my previous...

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Beyond the ivory tower

In the last couple of weeks, over at Justice Everywhere, I’ve launched a series of interviews that I am editing, exploring the role of political philosophers in ‘real politics’. Here’s an excerpt from...

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Should governments be thinking about raising taxes?

Should governments be thinking about rising taxes just now? It may seem like an odd idea at a time when we are facing a severe economic downturn, threatening the livelihoods of millions of people. But...

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On football and creating your own value

I’ve written a piece for Liverpool.com, arguing that the possibility of the Premier League season being abandoned, and of Liverpool being robbed of a title they had all but sealed, highlights the...

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Justice Everywhere: coronavirus rundown and Rebecca Lowe interview

Just sharing a couple of pieces I’ve been working on for Justice Everywhere. The first is a collection I’ve edited of brief reflections from ten different philosophers on the ethical and political...

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Out of business? The rise (and fall?) of public service marketisation

I’ve written a piece for the IPPR Progressive Review charting the waxing and waning of choice and competition in English public services. Here’s the introduction: For around 30 years, from the early...

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