In 2017, Jedidiah Purdy wrote that, “systems of profit and violence, inequality and vulnerability, have gone global, and fights against them must as well” (Walzer et al., 2017). His is one of many calls for a renewed, progressive internationalism, the most prominent of which is the recently launched, Progressive International (PI). The PI is spearheaded... Continue Reading →
Introduction South Africa has embarked on the historic implementation of a national minimum wage. This is both a timely and important intervention because the South African labour market continues to generate some of the highest levels of income inequality in the world, partly the result of unemployment but also due to massive inequalities in wages... Continue Reading →
In the last decade there have been mounting levels of frustration among students of economics at higher education institutions across the globe as they grapple with the lack of relevance of their degrees to real world socio-economic challenges. Although not a new phenomenon, the disconnect between what economic students are taught in the classroom versus... Continue Reading →
Decolonisation has been a recurring theme in narratives on Africa’s social, economic, political and cultural development. In South Africa, the debate on decolonisation reached fever pitch in 2016 with the Fees Must Fall Movement on university campuses. Of the many issues that surfaced in the course of the debate, however, few seemed to have spawned... Continue Reading →
There are some parts of the Mbeki, et al paper with which I agree, at the broadest level. Who can disagree with the argument that care needs to be exercised by government to head off a further deterioration in state finances in a context of low growth, declining revenue and constant or rising demands on... Continue Reading →
Introduction This paper looks at the danger of a looming fiscal cliff facing South Africa. Initial research on the fiscal cliff (Rossouw et al, 2014) assessed social assistance payments and compensation of civil servants to calculate the point where this expenditure will absorb all government revenue. As the interest burden on government debt developed into... Continue Reading →
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The public transport situation in South Africa is plunging the working poor into chaos. They have been placed far away from Industrial and commercial centres where they work. For this dysfunctional arrangement, one of Apartheid’s worst legacies, they are paying a prohibitive price. There is a systemic transport crisis in most areas of the country,... Continue Reading →
Located within a global crisis characterised by extreme inequality, devastating climate change and hopelessness, The Wellbeing Economy picks up where Fioramonti’s previous works, notably GDP: Gross Domestic Problem, leave off. As with that book, Fioramonti lays out a myriad of problems with mainstream economic dogma that posit growth as the basis for human flourishing. The... Continue Reading →
