The Pie Is Getting Bigger . . . American Workers Helped Bake It . . . But Most of Them Aren't Getting a Bigger Slice

Remarks By  U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez, AFL-CIO National Summit on Raising Wages, Washington, D.C., January 7, 2015 [as prepared for delivery] Good morning brothers and sisters! MaryBe, thank you so much for that generous introduction—and more importantly for your great work and leadership in North Carolina. Thank you, Rich Trumka, for this…

Two Charts That Show Where the Money Is in College Football

The first chart shows the average revenues per team by conference in 2013: The article in Business Insider, which includes some explanation of the chart, is available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/college-football-revenue-conferences-2014-12. The second chart shows the payout by conference from the 2014 bowl games and playoffs: The article in Business Insider, which includes some explanation of the…

Some Early Thoughts on President Obama’s Proposal for Free Education at U.S. Community Colleges

I should begin by stating that I am in favor of any proposal that provides free higher education at public colleges and universities. In fact, I am in favor of any proposal that reduces the cost to students without compromising the quality of instruction. I think that the president’s proposal will help community colleges because…

Why Sanctimony Is No Defense against Zealotry

To some extent, sanctimony is the “civilized” version of dogma enforced by social, religious, or political conformity and then, when that proves insufficient, the threat of force. There is now a great deal of attention to the nature of the satire published in Charlie Hebdo, with some commentators finding it almost embarrassingly juvenile and others…

Strange Bedfellows… at the Kiddie Table?

Twice a day, a stopped clock is right, right? Sometimes I even find something laudable in what David Brooks writes. Today, for example, I agree with his conclusion–but his argument is so bizarre that I can only surmise he got to a truth through the turning of the earth. As I wrote yesterday, I am moving…

Nous Sommes Charlie

Yeah, I have to join in on this. “Je suis Charlie.” That’s personal. But there’s also more: We, the American faculty, are the protectors of freedom with our pens and pencils just as are the cartoonists who are taking up their tools today in defense of that which should need no defense, the right to…

The Defense of Satire Is the Defense of Free Expression

In response to the terrorist attacks on the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, Business Insider has run a selection of sixteen of the magazine’s most provocative covers [http://www.businessinsider.com/16-bold-covers-from-the-satirical-paris-magazine-that-was-attacked-today-2015-1?op=1]. The television coverage of the terrorist attack has been quite uniform in not showing the materials that led to the attack on the magazine’s offices,…