Noah Smith  🐇Verified account

4/We can make policy that gives everyone a job, but we can't make policy that makes sure white people have better jobs than black people.

5/Well, I mean, we *could* do that, but it's evil, so it should be out of the question.

6/I think this ties into my June thread about racial resentment and the EITC:https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/876352524936237056 …

7/Racial resentment drives some white people to believe - contrary to the facts - that black people don't work.

8/And racial resentment makes some white people *oppose* policies like EITC that actually encourage poor people to work...

9/Because if more poor *black* people work, that means one less thing that those racially-resentful white people can feel superior about.

10/This is one reason (not the only reason) why racial resentment is so crucially important to understanding American political economy.

11/If economists ignore racial resentment they'll end up pushing policies that get rejected by some of the ppl those policies would benefit.