Tag: Passing the Buck Series

  • Passing the Buck: Why We Make Less But Pay More Part 15: How We Get There

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    Part 15 of Passing the Buck, a 15-part series on why we make less but pay more. This is the final installment. The last fourteen installments have been an attempt to describe a structural problem. This one is supposed to be the part where the writer describes how to fix it. I want to start…

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    Even that’s Odd

  • Passing the Buck: Why We Make Less But Pay More Part 14: What We Could Have Instead

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    Part 14 of Passing the Buck, a 15-part series on why we make less but pay more. The previous thirteen installments have been an attempt to describe the structure of cost-shifting in American economic life and to trace how that structure was built. This one looks at what other developed countries do, partly because the…

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    Even that’s Odd

  • Passing the Buck: Why We Pay More But Make Less Part 13: How We Got Here

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    Part 13 of Passing the Buck, a 15-part series on why we make less but pay more. The structural picture this series has been building was assembled over roughly fifty years, through a sequence of policy changes that, taken individually, were always defensible on some narrow technical or ideological ground, and that taken together added…

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    Even that’s Odd

  • Passing the Buck: Why We Pay More But Make Less Part 12: The Bipartisan Consensus

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    Part 12 of Passing the Buck, a 15-part series on why we make less but pay more. The previous installment looked at where the money goes. This one looks at why the political system has not redirected it, which is a question I find harder to answer in a tidy way than the structural-economics questions…

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    Even that’s Odd

  • Passing the Buck: Why We Pay More But Make Less Part 11: Who Profits?

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    Part 11 of Passing the Buck, a 15-part series on why we make less but pay more. The ten installments before this one traced where the money goes — the categories where household spending has grown, the mechanisms by which it has grown, and the structural reasons for the growth. This one is about who…

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    Even that’s Odd

  • Passing the Buck: Why We Pay More But Make LessPart 10: The Compound Effect

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    Part 10 of Passing the Buck, a 15-part series on why we make less but pay more. This series has spent nine installments going category by category through the structural changes that have shifted costs from corporate balance sheets onto American households over the last fifty years. Each installment looked at one slice of the…

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    Even that’s Odd