Paul Buchheit

Paul Buchheit

Paul Buchheit is an advocate for social and economic justice, and the author of numerous papers on economic inequality and cognitive science. He was recently named one of 300 Living Peace and Justice Leaders and Models. He is the author of "American Wars: Illusions and Realities" (2008) and "Disposable Americans: Extreme Capitalism and the Case for a Guaranteed Income" (2017). Contact email: paul (at) youdeservefacts.org.

Articles by this author

People participate in a "March on Billionaires" event on July 17, 2020 in New York City. The march, which included a diverse group of activists, politicians and citizens, called on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to pass a tax on billionaires and to fund workers excluded from unemployment and federal aid programs. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Views
Monday, March 22, 2021
The Boundless Advantages of the Welfare State—for the Rich
President Biden's $1.9 trillion Covid relief plan is a positive step forward in the battle for economic and social justice. But not a single Congressional Republican voted for it. The unsubstantiated claim of Republican senators and conservative groups is that it establishes a "welfare state" that...
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The facts and numbers from numerous sources reflect the reality of deprivation in America, and help to confirm what has been called the "sharpest rise in the U.S. poverty rate since the 1960s." (Photo: Getty/ Stock Photo/Darrin Willoughby / EyeEm) Views
Monday, February 22, 2021
2021 Update: Half of America In or Near Poverty
Poverty, as defined by the World Bank , is a "pronounced deprivation in well-being." This describes the millions of Americans who are unable to pay for medical treatment; who suffer the stress of delinquent rent and mortgage payments; who see a steady decline of jobs that pay enough to support a...
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Participants holding letters spelling TAX WALL STREET. In the face of worsening pandemic conditions in the country, a coalition of Activists gathered outside the New York Stock Exchange at Wall Street to call for the Equitable Taxation of Corporations, demanding legislators to pass the Financial Transaction Tax to generate around 9 billion dollars needed for COVID Recovery and Essential Services. (Photo by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images) Views
Monday, February 08, 2021
The Year of Cheating the Poor
An insidious side of American capitalism has been highlighted by the pandemic. Millions of wealthy Americans have made passive stock market gains while millions of income-dependent Americans have lost their jobs and their livelihoods, and disproportionately their lives. If ever there was a time to...
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U.S. President Donald Trump awards the National Medal of Freedom to former Attorney General Edwin Meese during a ceremony in the Oval Office at the White House October 08, 2019 in Washington, DC. Meese was appointed attorney general by President Ronald Reagan and served from 1985 to 1988. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Views
Monday, December 14, 2020
How Right-Wing Conservatives Have Laid Waste to America for 50 Years
What is a conservative? We've seen a lot of them in 2020, refusing to respect the needs of society. The Heritage Foundation says : "Foremost among [conservatism's] transcendent values is the individual’s use of his God-given free will, whence derives his right to be free from the restrictions of...
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We won't end the accumulation of wealth. As Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says, "No one ever makes a billion dollars. You take a billion dollars." (Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Views
Monday, November 30, 2020
Inequality Gone Viral: The Obscene Numbers
In a distressing analogy to the relentless surge of Covid-19, which has disproportionately impacted low-income communities and people of color, there has been an unstoppable transfer of wealth from desperate Americans to the people who already had most of our nation's financial assets. While the...
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The redistribution of wealth to the richest 1% over the past 45 years is hard to comprehend. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Views
Monday, September 21, 2020
How Hypocrites in High Places Have Contributed to the Riots in the Streets
A perception exists among much of White America that young Black men would rather loot a store than work a job. This perception serves a lot of wealthy people well, deflecting attention away from their own failures to support the needs of society. But it’s a dangerously twisted perception. People...
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"If today's companies were truly offering a fair return to the taxpayers who built their businesses, they'd be doing a lot more to ensure that all Americans have the means to support their families, writes Buchheit (Photo: a.mina/flickr/cc) Views
Monday, August 31, 2020
How Big Corporations are Draining the Life out of a Sick America
When Dr. Jonas Salk was asked about a patent on his polio vaccine in 1955, he said, "There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?" When Gilead Sciences recently developed an anti-Covid drug for about $12 per treatment, they set the price at $3,200. As Republicans and business leaders decry the...
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Monday, August 17, 2020
What to Know When Someone Blames Black People for All the Riots
It's easy for lazy thinkers to gloss over the deep-seated reasons for the anger and violence of downtrodden people. Recent lootings of upscale shops on Chicago's Magnificent Mile brought out waves of disgust for the 'thugs' who were said to care little for human values. But an honest review of the...
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A homeless man sleeps under an American Flag blanket on a park bench on September 10, 2013 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Views
Monday, August 03, 2020
Comparing Poverty in India and America May Surprise You
The Covid-19 pandemic threatens to impoverish millions of people around the world, in both developing and advanced countries. But many Americans refuse to allow their nation to be compared to a developing country . Their poverty definitions are simplistic, based on globally calculated "dollars per...
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Volunteers speak with a woman while boxes of food for the needy from the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida are being packed in her car during a drive through event at City of Destiny church. The demand for food continues in the Orlando, Florida area due to the large numbers of service workers and others who have become unemployed due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Views
Monday, July 13, 2020
Foreshadowing the Year 2021: Half of America Facing Poverty
There is something perverse about an economic system in which the stock market keeps climbing while people are dying. And in which 20 individuals can own as much wealth as the entire bottom half of the population. For the great majority of Americans without a share of the stock market, and for...
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