Article

Elites and Alternatives

The New Republic, March 31, 1973

Our economy is controlled by an extremely small, largely unaccountable set of elites operating on behalf of a wealth-owning minority.  To alter this pattern of own­er­ship and control is politically unfeasible at the moment, but so are many things until enough people decide they want them.

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Mining The Prairies

The New Republic, March 24, 1973

UNDER the rolling plains of eastern Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas is one of the world’s last great energy reserves — nearly a trillion tons of lignite and sub-bitu­minous coal, about 35 billion of which are readily strippable.  A good many ranchers, young people and others, however, don’t want to mine it.

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The Berkeley Co-op: Democratic, Up to a Point

The New Republic, December 1, 1972

THE FIRST thing that strikes a shopper entering a Co‑op supermarket is a feeling that the store is on his side.  But cooperatives, like small farms and many other forms of independent busi­ness, have fallen vic­tim to the mid-century dictum of expand or die.

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Fair Shares

The New Republic, October 21, 1972

WHILE a small minority of Americans siphons off more money than it knows what to do with, a fifth of our population remains perennially poor, and millions more teeter on the edge of poverty.  Ever-increasing production won’t, by it­self, correct this.  We also need to share better.

 

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How Wealth Is Distributed

The New Republic, September 30, 1972

WHAT IS WEALTH, who gets it, and why?  More to the point, why — despite wars on poverty, pro­gressive taxation, relatively high em­ployment and widespread educational opportunity — does our economy so stubbornly perpetuate inequality?

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Tax Farmers

The New Republic, September 2, 1972

THERE must be a broad commitment by the federal government to assist agricultural workers, rather than tax-evading doctors, to become farm owners.

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A Populist Manifesto

The New Republic, April 29, 1972

The book’s thesis is that a political majority can be built by rallying workers, minorities and young people around a banner that reads: “Some institutions and people have too much money and power, most people have too little, and the first priority of politics must be to redress that imbalance.”

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Health Care In Seattle

The New Republic, December 18, 1971

NOT EVERY CRANNY of the American economy is occu­pied by profit-hunters.  Here and there, nonprofit cooperatives have sprung up, providing their member-owners with almost every kind of service or product.  Some work very well.

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Reconsidering Henry George

The New Republic, December 11, 1971

NO OTHER economics book that I have read possesses the lucidity, grace or compassion of George’s classic.  And while there are faults in George’s rea­soning, and much of what he says has been blunted by the passage of time, what strikes the modern reader is how ex­tremely pertinent this book remains.

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How Oil Companies Play Monopoly

The New Republic, November 6, 1971

SINCE the end of the 19th century it has been charac­teristic of the oil industry to restrain competition through one means or another, the aim being to administer production and prices so as to maximize profits.

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