Harry Frankfurt has written a very accessible text addressing an extremely important contemporary problem. It provides a good critique of loose arguments about the evils of economic inequality you might find in the popular press. It provides a provocative critique of a widely accepted tenet of economics-the declining marginal utility of money. Ultimately, however, the text ignores the literature on inequality and egalitarianism for the sake of making its argument clear and simple. Frankfurt calls "egalitarians" out for misplacing the focus of their moral arguments. Economic inequality, he argues, "is not in itself objectionable" (5). Rather, "our basic focus should be on reducing both poverty and excessive affluence" (5). Frankfurt proposes "the doctrine of sufficiency … that what is morally important with regard to money is that everyone should have enough" as the appropriate alternative to economic egalitarianism (which he defines as "the doctrine that it is desirable for everyone to have the same amounts of income and of wealth") (6-7). Frankfurt believes this confusion not only muddles debates but also "distracts people from considering their own personal circumstances and needs" and "encourages them to aim, misguidedly, at a level of affluence measured by a calculation in which … the specific features of their own lives play no part" (10-11). Thus, a pursuit of egalitarianism diverts the individual from trying to discover "what he truly desires or needs, and what will actually satisfy him," and focuses attention on his position in relation to others (11). This results in
Health care reform is an important issue in the 2004 presidential elections and is receiving serious attention from the Democratic and Republican candidates. Changes in the economy that fuelled increased productivity and depressed job growth have also shifted more of the costs of medical care and insurance onto employees. The rising costs of insurance premiums and health care are far outpacing the general inflation rate and workers’ wages. Meanwhile, state governments reacted to widening budget deficits from 2001 to 2003 by reducing Medicaid eligibility and benefits. These changes in employer-based health insurance and government policy have contributed to the largest rise in the share of Americans without health insurance in a decade. In 2002, the uninsured numbered 43.6 million and, according to the Congressional Budget Office, 57 to 59 million non-elderly people are uninsured at some point over the course of a year.
Feminist scholars and activists have a long history of integrating feminist praxis in the curriculum through community engagement initiatives. Using feminist critiques, they have investigated possibilities as well as limitations of these initiatives in neoliberal universities (Boyd & Sandell, 2012; Costa & Leong, 2012; Dean et al., 2019; Johnson & Luhmann, 2016; Kwon & Nguyen, 2016). Nevertheless, most of the existing studies focus on feminist community engagement within institutionalized Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) departments, programs, and courses. This article demonstrates how feminist community engagement can expand its scope outside the institutional boundaries of WGSS programs. It contributes to the existing feminist literature in several ways. First, it explores how feminist and decolonial praxis can manifest in a non-WGSS setting and the resulting challenges and possibilities that arise. Second, it argues that the transition from traditional service learning to feminist and decolonial community engagement is a complex, contentious, and iterative process rather than an end goal. Lastly, it elaborates on how faculty can not only avoid the tendency of “learning elsewhere” and framing the community as “unprivileged Other” but also build and organize with community through creative subversion of various structures of the neoliberal university.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.