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Matt Bruenig
Born
Matthew Bruenig

(1988-11-22) November 22, 1988 (age 36)
EducationUniversity of Oklahoma (BA)
Boston University (JD)
Occupations
  • Lawyer
  • policy analyst
  • commentator
EmployerPeople's Policy Project
Spouse
​
(m. 2014)​
Children2
Websitemattbruenig.com

Matthew Bruenig[1] (born November 22, 1988)[2][3] is an American lawyer, blogger, policy analyst, commentator,[4] and founder of the left-leaning think tank People's Policy Project. He was a blogger for the American think tank Demos covering politics and public policy[5] and has written on issues including income distribution, taxation, welfare, elections, the Nordic model, and funds socialism.[6][7][8][9]

Career

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Bruenig's writing has appeared in a range of publications including The New York Times,[10] Current Affairs,[11] Jacobin,[12] The Atlantic,[13] Dissent,[14] and The Washington Post.[15]

In 2016, Bruenig was fired from his part-time job blogging for Demos after he posted a series of what Gawker called "rude tweets" targeting first Joan Walsh and later Center for American Progress president Neera Tanden.[16][17] Demos stated he was let go due to a pattern of "online harassment of people with whom he disagrees";[18] some journalists nevertheless speculated there may have been outside pressure on behalf of Tanden.[19][20][21]

In 2017, Bruenig founded the People's Policy Project, a left-wing think tank which raises money through crowdfunding. The think tank analyzes politics and produces market socialist[citation needed] policy proposals tailored to the United States context.[22][23]

In 2020, Bloomberg News reported that Bruenig with his wife were producing a podcast that generated about $9,000 per month from listeners.[24]

Personal life

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Bruenig is married to Elizabeth Bruenig,[25] Staff Writer for The Atlantic,[26] formerly an opinion writer and editor at The Washington Post[27] and The New York Times.[28] They have two children.[29]

Bruenig has stated that he was diagnosed as autistic in adulthood.[30]

Political views

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Bruenig describes his brand of socialism as follows:[31]

Socialism is the idea that capital (the means of production) should be owned collectively. There are divergent ideas about how to achieve this in reality. One approach is to have the government hold it collectively in social wealth funds. This is (more or less) the socialism of Yanis Varoufakis, Rudolf Meidner, and John E. Roemer. It is also my brand of socialism, at least for the time.

Bruenig is an advocate of single-payer healthcare,[32] and has argued extensively in favor of its feasibility.[33]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Bruenig, Matt. "Resume" (PDF). Matt Bruenig. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  2. ^ Hoxie, Josh (August 25, 2017). "Getting Ready for the Day the Power Structure Shifts". Inequality.org. Institute for Policy Studies. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  3. ^ Bruenig, Elizabeth. "ITS @MattBruenig's BIRTHDAY". Archived from the original on November 22, 2018. Retrieved November 22, 2018.
  4. ^ Bruenig, Matt (April 13, 2017). "Welfare for Everyone". Jacobin. Interviewed by Denvir, Daniel. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
  5. ^ "Posts by Matt Bruenig". Demos Policyshop. February 15, 2023.
  6. ^ McFarland, Kate (February 26, 2017). "Matt Bruenig on 'Passive Income': Viral Article and Video Interview". Basic Income Earth Network. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
  7. ^ Campos, Paul (April 23, 2014). "Matt Bruenig Discovers Secret Motivation for Criticisms of His Insights". Lawyers Guns & Money. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
  8. ^ Worstall, Tim (January 4, 2017). "Matt Bruenig Says the 1% Already Gets a Universal Basic Income – So Why Not One for All?". Forbes. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
  9. ^ Bruenig, Matt (September 28, 2018). "Common Wealth: workers' ownership in the history of socialism". Verso. Retrieved August 11, 2023.
  10. ^ Bruenig, Matt (November 30, 2017). "A Simple Fix for Our Massive Inequality Problem". New York Times. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  11. ^ Bruenig, Matthew (February 26, 2019). "A serious plan to solve poverty". Current Affairs. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  12. ^ Bruenig, Matt (February 24, 2020). "Free Public Childcare and Pre-K Is Popular and Affordable". Jacobin. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  13. ^ Bruenig, Matt (April 13, 2013). "What Thatcher Didn't Understand: Inequality Hurts the Rich and Poor Alike". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  14. ^ Bruenig, Matt (October 5, 2015). "The Case Against Free College". Dissent Magazine. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  15. ^ Bruenig, Matt (October 4, 2018). "Democrats, take note: If you want to raise wages, put pressure on employers". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  16. ^ Trotter, J. K. (May 20, 2016). "Liberal Think Tank Fires Blogger for Rude Tweets". Gawker. Retrieved July 21, 2017. ..the organization clarified, 'We are not taking issue with our blogger's political opinions or with him challenging prominent, powerful people. What troubles us is a pattern of tone and conduct, not his chosen targets or the content of his ideas.'
  17. ^ Goldberg, Michelle (May 23, 2016). "Is Matt Bruenig a Populist Martyr?". Slate. Retrieved October 14, 2018. As the feminist writer Sady Doyle wrote in an email to Demos, 'Bruenig is not only directly aggressive, he is a ringleader who inspires people to be aggressive and commit harassment in his name. Reports of being stormed after Bruenig points his followers at people are ubiquitous, and they most often come from women and people of color.'
  18. ^ "Reflections on Social Media and Our Responsibility" (Press release). Demos. May 20, 2016. Archived from the original on May 20, 2016. Retrieved July 21, 2017. After our tweet apologizing for Matt's personal attacks including the term 'scumbag,' we received emails from multiple individuals who made it clear that we were not aware of the extent to which Matt has been at the center of controversies surrounding online harassment of people with whom he disagrees.
  19. ^ Drum, Kevin (May 21, 2016). "The Great Matt Bruenig–Neera Tanden Kerfuffle Sort of Explained". Mother Jones. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
  20. ^ East, Kristen (May 21, 2016). "Progressive Blogger Fired for Calling Hillary Clinton Ally a 'Scumbag'". Politico. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
  21. ^ Yglesias, Matthew (May 21, 2016). "Bruenighazi: How a Feisty Bernie Blogger's Firing Explains Democratic Politics in 2016". Vox. Retrieved July 21, 2017. Demos then responded to the ongoing Twitter thread, calling Bruenig's tweets 'unacceptable,' and apologized for his words. The organization released a lengthy statement Friday night detailing its differences with Bruenig, who has more than 270,000 Twitter followers, and his departure from the group.
  22. ^ "About". People's Policy Project. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  23. ^ "Matt Bruenig Is Creating a Think Tank". Patreon. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  24. ^ Newcomer, Eric (May 26, 2020). "Left-Wing Podcasters Are Charting A Future Without Bernie Sanders". Bloomberg News. Retrieved November 13, 2021. 'Left leaning podcasts have been listener funded,' says Matt Bruenig who hosts a podcast with his wife....'With the podcast there are no costs so it's up to basically $100,000 a year. That's pretty good money.'
  25. ^ "Building a Moral Economy: Elizabeth & Matt Bruenig". Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Law School. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  26. ^ Benet, James (May 12, 2021). "Elizabeth Bruenig Joins Opinion". The Atlantic. Retrieved May 15, 2021. Elizabeth Bruenig to Join The Atlantic as a Staff Writer
  27. ^ Hiatt, Fred; Marcus, Ruth; Diehl, Jackson (October 25, 2017). "Elizabeth Bruenig Joins Opinions Staff as Writer and Editor". WashPost PR Blog. The Washington Post. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  28. ^ Benet, James (December 23, 2019). "Elizabeth Bruenig Joins Opinion". NY Times. Retrieved February 18, 2020. Elizabeth Bruenig will join The New York Times as an Opinion writer.
  29. ^ Yglesias, Matt (August 31, 2020). "The Case for Adding 672 Million More Americans". New York Magazine. Retrieved September 24, 2020. the most serious plan for dealing with it comes not from any of Washington's many mainstream think tanks but from the People's Policy Project — essentially a one-man show run by Matt Bruenig, an eccentric socialist who, along with his wife, New York Times columnist Elizabeth Bruenig, is a parent of two young kids. They whimsically call their proposal the Family Fun Pack, and while it's rigorous in its details, it's also strikingly simple in concept.
  30. ^ Matt and Liz Bruenig (August 2018). "The Bruenigs: Medicare for All Fact-checking Debacle and Autism". Soundcloud (Podcast). The Bruenigs. Event occurs at 34:14. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  31. ^ Bruenig, Matt (February 11, 2017). "Nickel-and-Dime Socialism". Medium. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  32. ^ Scott, Dylan (March 4, 2019). "A single-payer advocate answers the big question: How do we pay for it?". Vox. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  33. ^ Bruenig, Matt. "Don't Believe the Hype: Paying for Medicare for All Is Simple". Jacobin Magazine. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
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