Care Talk

Pinko Economics

13 December 2019

Globally, most center-right parties are labeled blue, but in the U.S. today, Republicans are red, and Democrats are blue. Why? Because the major television networks decided around 2000 to standardize their visuals that way on election night.

Quantifying Care

13 December 2019

17th International Experts Meeting on Time Use and XX International Meeting on Gender Statistics, September 10-13, 2019, in Aguascalientes, Mexico

Revaluation not Devaluation

11 August 2019

I invoke a billionaire investor to call your attention to a particularly important divergence between value and price–the low wages of care.

The Lazy Father Saga

19 June 2019

The lazy father is enshrined in popular culture. Google up the term and there he is: Homer Simpson snoring on the couch. Unfair caricature, especially on Fathers’ Day!

Cut Child Poverty by Half

8 March 2019

The United Kingdom did it between 1999 and 2008. The Canadian government implemented a plan to do it in 2016. The U.S. almost did it between 1967 and 2016: cut the incidence of child poverty by half.

The Childcare Conundrum

7 March 2019

The Warren proposal gets good marks from most progressive policy wonks. It seems edgy but possible. If implemented, would almost certainly have positive effects. So what’s not to like?

Love Among the Synths

11 February 2019

I just started watching Humans, a British television series distributed by AMC in the U.S. and Real Humans, the Swedish series on which it is approximately based. Both start out on the same theme, the use of intelligent (and, in some cases, fully conscious and emotionally adept) androids to help provide family care.

The Blood Business

11 February 2019

Because many countries don’t allow the purchase of human blood for plasma extraction, U.S. businesses find a ready market.

How I Learned to Love Macro

30 January 2019

Economies cannot be reduced to the production of commodities by means of commodities. They should be understood, more broadly, as the production of people by means of people.

How to Make Nice

20 January 2019

I had every reason to obey this sign, posted in the cafe where I sought refuge while my car underwent safety-recall repairs. I did not want to go away.

The Child Care Payoff

20 January 2019

The history of economic research demonstrating the payoff to public investments in early childhood education in the U.S. is rich and deep, even if it hasn’t (yet) mobilized support for a federal initiative in the U.S.

Intersecting, Overlapping Hierarchies

20 January 2019

Playing around with visual images to convey the concept of intersecting