Abstract Sexual pressure can range from egregious to relatively mild. Here, I focus on relatively mild forms of sexual pressuring deployed among people who do not know one another well: attempts to obtain sex by pestering, wheedling, minor intimidation, minor deceits, threats of slightly adverse consequences, and emotional manipulation. Many prominent philosophical views condemn such sexual pressuring while others, also prominent, imply that it is innocuous. I will argue that neither of these sorts of views gets things quite right. On the view that I defend, such pressuring always imposes a risk to the individual being pressured that is morally problematic. And sometimes, this morally problematic element suffices to render relatively mild sexual pressuring on balance immoral. Acceptance of this view may have some important practical implications, and I close by discussing them.
Abstract In this paper, I consider Marxist arguments for, and against, race-based reparations. I contend that Marxists have moral and epistemic reasons to support race-based reparations. Nevertheless, I suggest that they also have reasons to be cautious of race-based reparations. I offer a framework with which to consider these arguments. This framework makes sense of two important features that are relevant for Marxist reparations: interpretive disagreements within Marxist scholarship and different empirical circumstances. I explain why these reasons for, and against, race-based reparations matter for Marxists, and I consider how they might be weighed against each other.
Abstract Economic change can bring many benefits, but it can also upset the economic positions and prospects of individuals and communities by dramatically curtailing access to decent employment. This paper explores the question of how a society ought to address those left behind by economic change. The paper's first goal is to defend the claim that the best way to frame the issue of access to decent employment is not just as an issue of economic policy but also as a public health issue, a framing that it justifies, in part, through the case study of “deaths of despair,” a phenomenon famously explored by Anne Case and Angus Deaton. This framing clarifies the moral urgency of expanding access to decent employment. The paper's second goal is to discuss the values at stake in the problem and in the possible solutions. I argue that (1) the state should implement policies friendlier to private sector employment and (2) the state should serve as an employer of last resort, at least when the work created is productive and doesn't create out-of-control inflationary pressures.
Abstract I distinguish voluntary retirement (of those able to work) from involuntary retirement (of those unable to work). I discuss the former. I argue that the state's pensions policy should be neutral between life-plans, and this requires the following two changes. First, tax relief on private voluntary retirement pensions (PVRPs) should be abolished because it effectively transfers money to those saving for a long and/or prosperous voluntary retirement from those who would prefer to have more time and/or money while young and middle-aged in exchange for a shorter and/or less prosperous voluntary retirement. Tax relief would remain unchanged on private involuntary retirement pensions. Second, state pensions should be split into two components: a compulsory “state involuntary retirement pension” (SIRP) and an optional “state voluntary retirement pension” (SVRP). Citizens opting out of the SVRP—or paying less toward it—would correspondingly enjoy a higher income while young and middle-aged.
Abstract Use of the term “politicize” and its variants has surged in the American lexicon over the past half-century. Typically, the term “politicize” carries a tone of condemnation. Yet it is unclear if politicizing is always bad. In this article, I give an account of what it means to politicize by first describing paradigmatic cases of politicizing in popular media, then I survey various definitions of politicizing and explain the concept. Politicizing typically occurs when an agent instrumentalizes some activity or institution for the sake of their partisan political agenda. To politicize is to use a nonpartisan good as a means to a partisan end.
