The Contrarian Review

"In the United States, we paid the equivalent of 8.2 percent of our economy more in social spending out of our own pockets than the peo...

"[T]he parties are increasingly divided over reality itself: over what is actually true, not only about hard science but also social sc...

"Intellectualism, science, and knowledge itself is only valuable [for conservatives] to the extent to which it can shore up the ideolog...

"Low tax rates. Profits for so-called 'job creators.' Spending cuts. The three things that conservatives say are most necessary...

"If freedom, as the conservatives seem to insist, comes down primarily to the quantity of government spending, then a country such as S...

"But we’re special. We’re Americans. We’re exceptional. If we want to learn how to keep healthcare costs from devouring the economy, we...

"Free-market economists may want you to believe that the correct boundaries of the market can be scientifically determined, but this is...

"Yes, I make good money, but I work hard for it." People have got to stop saying that as if it explains everything. Lots of people...

"Walmart and other low-wage employers are poster-children for free-market hypocrisy, claiming that the 'market' dictates they p...

"How did it become normal, or for that matter even acceptable, to refer to medical patients as 'consumers'? The relationship be...

‎"There is one idea that explains Republican behavior: moral disgust at income redistribution.... Opposition to the progressive income ...

"Estimates of how much would be saved by extending Medicare to cover the entire population range from $58 billion to $400 billion a yea...

"There’s an old joke to the effect that you’re an ideologue; I’m just being sensible. The point is that everyone has an ideology — whic...

A recent conversation reminded me of this: the virtue of government safety-net programs vs. individually directed "charity" (beyon...

"The corporate executives who helped bring on the recession of the past three years...went on to receive large bonuses. In some cases, ...

"It’s difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair The Tr...

"Countless factors beyond our choosing influence our [abilities,] ambition and effort, such as our upbringing, our family’s work ethic,...

"Only in the English-speaking world, with its tradition of radical libertarian ideology, could a head of state like Margaret Thatcher d...

"[T]he rise of Idiot America today represents -- for profit mainly, but also, and more cynically, for political advantage and in the pu...

“'The purpose of limited liability is to protect people from being responsible. If we put the assumptions about how we organize business...