Labor Daily Goods

A chain of related posts, interspersed with a comment from me:

• Brad DeLong — I Am a Reality-Based Center-Left Technocrat... — my two cents, and a bit of a preview of an upcoming post here
• Atrios — Technocracy — nearly quotes my earlier comment at DeLong's
• Brad DeLong — MaxSpeak Gets Semi-Medieval on DeLong

Elsewhere

• Brad DeLong — Lyndon Johnson, Yes. William Jennings Bryan, No — on the relative marginal utility of wealth for the rich vs. for the poor
• Brad DeLong — Department of "Huh?"
• Brad DeLong — Making 'em Feel Small... — Greg Mankiw responds to LBJ, Yes. WJB, No above. Brad gives a name to the motivation I've been contemplating for a while, calling it "spite". I'm not sure if this is standard terminology amongst ethicists, philosophers, whomever, or his own term that he's applied to it.
• PGL at Angry Bear — Measuring Poverty: Max Sawicky on Nicholas Eberstadt — PGL & Max Sawicky take one Nicholas Eberstadt to task.
• Kevin Drum — Deep Thoughts — Mickey Kaus thinks the reason poverty rates are up is that all the newly rich amongst us can afford to take a year of luxury off. Without even reaping any capital gains in the meanwhile, of course, because everyone who's that rich got there by har work and the sweat of their brows, not by having a big nest egg to begin with, of course.
• Kevin Drum — Happy Labor Day! — a depressing map showing the change in median incomes over the past six years. And speaking of maps....
• PGL at Angry Bear — Poverty: Mickey Kaus is All Over the Map — more on the inanity of Mickey Mouse Kaus
• Brad DeLong — I'm Not Going Back Over There!! — Brad can't bear to read the inanity of Mickey Kaus
• Brad DeLong — Alan Krueger Channels Ori Heffetz... — More on "spite" and conspicuous consumption, from Alan Krueger
• Pandagon — The expensive lives of the working poor in America — exploring why it's so hard for the poor to get ahead
• Brad DeLong — "It's a Great Market to Be a Worker!" — Daniel Gross points out how delusional some of the people at AEI (American Enterprise Institute, a right-wing think tank) are.
• Pandagon — More on the expensive lives of the working poor