Conservatives are people politically who are anti-change, anti-reform, who want to preserve things as they are, or return to the way things used to be not so very long ago. Conservatives always represent the time just passed or the time being passed. In the age of the industrial revolution, the conservatives were agrarians who mourned the loss of pastoral life. When the progressive era came along, the conservatives were capitalists who pushed back against the unions and labour reform. Nowadays, however, the left no longer pushes new social programmes, new reforms, or new ideas. Today, right wing politicians like Paul Ryan and David Cameron are the ones supporting things like “welfare reform”, “NHS reform”, “social security reform”, “Medicare reform”, and other reform policies that would change the state structurally, altering elements of it that have been in place for in many cases well over half a century. There is nothing conservative about wanting to change these policies. Change is, inherently, anti-conservative. So where have the conservatives gone? That is today’s topic.
Misconceptions: “Female Leaders Who Express Dominance are Acting Male”
Recently, I listened to an argument claiming that female leaders like Hillary Clinton, Condoleeza Rice, Margaret Thatcher, or Angela Merkel do not represent significant improvements to gender equality because they “act male” in that they are perceived have dominant personalities reminiscent of those of males. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of how leadership works and what it is to be male or female. Today, I aim to dissect, identify, and pick apart this misconception.
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Fed-Bashing Tomfoolery
It has become fashionable on the political right to attack the Federal Reserve and its policy of quantitative easing, the process by which the Federal Reserve increases the money supply by purchasing assets owned by the private sector with cash that it prints. The right argues that quantitative easing encourages inflation and makes it easier for the government to borrow money, that it discourages saving, and that these are bad things. In contrast, these are very good things, and I shall endeavour to argue as to why.
Teacher Evaluation
There is much discussion of evaluating teachers these days. Recently, the Chicago teachers union went on strike over the issue, among several others. The premise behind teacher evaluations–that the quality of a teacher can be determined by standardised test results, is rather tenuous. Today I would like to discuss some of the issues with this method and propose a superior alternative.
Money and Motivation: A Shocking Contradiction
Frequently, we are told by the right that progressive taxation is bad policy, that it diminishes the motivation of entrepreneurs and “job creators”. But what is the relationship between money and motivation? Does more income lead to higher productivity? It turns out, if you phrase the question correctly, the answer is already well known, and the implications of that answer comprise today’s topic.
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Benjamin Studebaker 