Jacobin Not Impressed

As you will infer by the name if you aren't already familiar with the publication, Jacobin is a formally-left aligned magazine. They have reviewed Ms. Harris' economic plans, and the top flight ones are not impressive to them. 
1. A $25,000 subsidy for first-time homebuyers
This is a bad idea. It is unfair to people who, even with the subsidy, cannot afford to buy a home and those who prefer to rent. Because it is a demand subsidy without any corresponding price controls, some of the money will also just get captured as higher home prices, negating the affordability goals of the policy....

2. A tax credit for building starter homes
This is a bad idea. There is absolutely no reason to believe that the proximate barrier to building more housing is that it is not sufficiently profitable and that we need to therefore sweeten the pot with public subsidies. This is just a waste of money. Moreover, conditioning the receipt of the tax credit on whether the person who buys the home turns out to be a first-time homebuyer, as this proposal does, makes no sense. Home builders do not typically know in advance who they are going to sell it to....

3. A ban on price gouging for groceries and food
It is unclear what this even means. 

As noted, these haven't been getting good reviews anywhere. If even Jacobin is against them, it's hard to know who the audience is supposed to be. 

3 comments:

  1. Gringo3:42 PM

    A high school peer writes occasional pieces for Jacobin. Brilliant, but he never bothered to evaluate the worldview he had in high school.

    The more Kamala talks, the more she shows herself to be a nothingburger.

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  2. Anonymous6:07 PM

    It sounds good, so long as you do not think about it. Which is the appeal, I suspect. "Promise free stuff, get votes," seems to be the driving philosophy in the Harris campaign.

    LittleRed1

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  3. LittleRed1 says what I was thinking. These proposals are emotive, not intellectual. Therefore, even people of very different intellectual premises can both hate them.

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