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Link Biscuits: 2 March 2010

Submitted by Matt Lewis on Wed, 03/03/2010 - 02:04
  • Michael Sandel, Obama and Civic Idealism: "Unlike the anti-bigness liberalism of the progressive era and early New Deal, the social-welfare liberalism of FDR in 1944 is recognizable as the liberalism of our time. The great liberal causes of the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s—civil rights, Medicare and Medicaid, racial and gender equality, federal support for education, a more generous welfare state—were about using government to provide equal opportunity and a social safety net, not about using government to rein in the political influence of big banks and corporations. Social-welfare liberalism seems a more practical doctrine than the anti-bigness version of earlier progressives. It is hard to imagine how to break up the large financial institutions and corporations that dominate modern economic life. And yet I believe it’s a mistake for contemporary liberals to give up on the old progressive project of exerting democratic control over economic institutions. In fact, it’s a mistake that has backfired on the Obama presidency. The initial reluctance of Barack Obama and his economic advisers to take a tougher line on the banks has led to a populist backlash that now threatens his agenda."
  • Boston Globe, It's Money that Matters: "IDEAS: What are the psychological or sociological effects of inequality? Are you saying that the “social pain” you describe can be a cause of violence in unequal societies?
    WILKINSON: I think people are extremely sensitive to status differentiation and to being looked down on, or disrespected, and those often seem to be the triggers to violence. We quote an American prison psychiatrist who goes so far as to say he’s never seen a serious act of violence that wasn’t provoked by loss of face or humiliation, and so on. And in more unequal societies, status matters even more. People judge each other more by status. There’s more insecurity. And people at the bottom are more often excluded from the markers of status, the jobs and housing and cars, so they become even more touchy about how they’re seen."
  • Department of Energy, Progress in Implementing the Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: "Certain states also faced fiscal challenges that contributed to the delay in the implementation of the Weatherization Program. For example, because of budget shortfalls associated with the economic downturn, certain states were under hiring freezes that applied to all employees regardless of the source of their funding, including those tasked with weatherization-related work. In other states, progress was impacted because personnel involved with the program were subject to significant state-wide furloughs. Further, the approval of state budgets was delayed in states such as Pennsylvania as legislators deliberated over how to address overall budget shortfalls. Lacking staff, states were unable to perform required implementation tasks necessary to handle the large infusion of Recovery Act Weatherization Program funding."