'Trickle-down economics is a scam'
Opinion, comment and editorials of the day


'"Trickle-down economics" is a scam that ignores decades of evidence'
Jennifer Rubin in The Washington Post
"Trickle-down tax cuts for the very rich do not increase prosperity," says Jennifer Rubin. "Huge tax cuts passed by MAGA Republicans in 2017," like previous breaks in various developed nations, made the rich richer, boosted deficits, and increased income disparity. They didn't deliver the promised increases in growth and jobs. "By contrast, restoring the child tax credit and enacting a billionaire's tax would continue to narrow the gulf between the very rich and everyone else."
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'Are Gen Z men and women really drifting apart?'
Rose Horowitch in The Atlantic
Recent headlines insist "young men and women are more politically divided now than ever before," says Rose Horowitch. But skeptics believe the studies behind these claims "rest on selective readings of inconclusive evidence." Other research indicates the "gender gap is stable." And where it counts most — "at the ballot box" — there's little evidence young men are shifting right while young women move left. The "Gen Z war of the sexes" probably isn't "apocalyptic," if it exists at all.
'Hold the inflation champagne'
The Wall Street Journal editorial board
"Wall Street and Washington are so eager to claim victory over inflation that even an acceleration in prices" qualifies as a sign they are stabilizing, says The Wall Street Journal editorial board. The cheerleaders "shrugged off" news of the second straight month of steeper consumer-price index increases. Investors still think the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in June. Optimism about cooling inflation continues, "but putting the champagne back on ice may be the wiser course."
'Why is standardized testing the lifeblood of education policy? We're failing our students.'
Larry Strauss in USA Today
Standardized tests are "instruments of stress and torture" that have steered educational policy for too long, says Larry Strauss. They focus on math and English even though science and history, economics, non-English languages and the arts are equally important to "students' long-term success and well-being and to the well-being — and survival — of the human race." We have technology to evaluate the work students do in class, which would be "imperfect but better than the current mess."
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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.
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