Readings

1. Anshu Siripurapu. 2022. The US inequality debate. April 20, Council on Foreign Relations. 
2. Andrew Duehren. 2025. The size of the tax cut. March 21, New York Times. (pdf)
3. Muskwatch DOGE tracker (become familiar with what it does, what it has learned)
4. Robert Coates. 1947. The Law. New Yorker Magazine, Nov 29: 41-43. In Canvas.
5. Stephen Kurutz. 2025. The Gen X career meltdown. March 28, New York Times. (pdf)

Lecture pages

Course resources: Thinking about social problems (these are here for your use throughout the course–you’ll understand why as we progress and discuss social problems and the ‘framework of questions’)

• Causes (pdf)
• Consequences (pdf)
• Who benefits? (pdf)
• How are problems framed, and by whom? (pdf)
• What to do? (pdf)

Week 1

• Outline / summary for the week (pdf)
• What is a social problem? (pdf)
• More on social problems (pdf)
• Structural and individual explanations (pdf)
• Some basic questions to ask (pdf)
• Walking through some of the questions surrounding tax cuts, DOGE,  and the firings of tens if not hundreds of thousands of federal workers.

Videos

• CBS News. 2020. Americans know wealth in equality is a problem, but what does it look like? Jan 31, CBS This Morning.