1,175 words

It’s not often that a book gives you an idea for dystopian fiction; the last time I decided to write a dystopia, the idea came from a Pulp song. But the reprint of Applied Eugenics by Paul Popenoe and Roswell Hill Johnson — a 1918 pop-science study of exactly what it sounds like — is an unusual volume.  (more…)

2,236 words

Benefits Street is a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the day-to-day lives of the residents of James Turner Street in Birmingham, England, 95% of whom are unemployed and claiming benefits. It is a compelling snapshot of the underclass that is growing in every city in the Western world.  (more…)

2,280 words

Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” in the 1960s set up millions of Blacks and Hispanics in cities on generous housing and welfare benefits. Before the Great Society, nobody assumed they could live on permanent government benefits, except maybe disabled veterans.

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