Daily Reads-58 (Level-2)

Reading Suggestion-1

Article Name: Against Domesticity
Author Name: Amber A’Lee Frost
Source: Project Current Affairs
Category: Culture

Summary for this article:

As rightly the title states, the author in this piece of writing, shows her distaste towards domesticity. She loathes the practice of cooking and cleaning and complains against the quick recipes and cooking tutorials put up by cooking enthusiasts fantasizing the art of cooking and making it so unreal. The author says that she’d rather put her hand in the burner than actually spend her time sweating over a hot stove.

The author says that she understands that housework is necessary and important, her only issue is that domesticity is considered to be an effortless task, which is not true.
It never used to be this way, she says, citing an example of Julia Child who
never denied that cooking was a complex task and displayed o her viewers how
difficult and exhausting cooking can get.

The author compares this with today’s time lapse tutorials which never shows the
efforts involved in the entire cooking process. It has all the ingredients that is
required for cooking in its desired state all that the tutorial does is to show its
viewers the refined version of cooking claiming it to be a very quick process and
an effortless one, whereas the reality is totally different.

The author says that she is domestic only to be social. Apart from wage labour,
she never cooks for anyone whom she doesn’t love

The author concludes by saying that the feminists cannot roam the world and
keep it clean and cozy at the same time and then leaves her reader with a thought
from the book, Revolution at Point Zero

Words to learn from this article:

Fetishize: To be excessively or irrationally devoted to something
Insidious: Something that is gradually and slowly causing harm without being noticed.
Ignoble: Not worthy
Proletarian: Belonging to the lowest or the poorest class.
Bourgeois: Belonging to the social middle class
Petit: Petit means something that is small and is insignificant; petty
Splatter: To splash with a thick liquid
Cavalier: Someone who is not concerned of other person’s feelings or safety.
Abstemious: Someone who avoids or does only in moderate things that seem to give pleasure, especially food or alcohol

Reading Suggestion-1: Click to read full article

Reading Suggestion-2

Article Name: The bloodshed leveller
Author name: Walter Scheidel
Source: Aeon
Category: Non-Fiction

Summary for this article:

Throughout history, war and plague have left the society equal once they subside. Author asks can we get the same equality again without getting into a war or without an epidemic. He goes on to say that with stratification in the society, the heredity laws of private property, cumulative rewards of brain, brawn and luck the separation among the masses on economic grounds increased. He cites few examples which have helped in lowering this inequality like democracy, labour movement, mass education. But he also accepts the fact there were many other factors before these reforms came into picture.

The other factor is nothing but traumatic shocks that came time to time and shrank the gaps between poor and rich. Author gives various examples of wars and plagues and how they have brought in equality in the society. He says that had these wars and epidemic not taken place, the distribution of wealth and the abatement of inequality would have taken very gradually with the advent of democracy, taxation rules, mass education and other major reforms.

At the end, author says that it is always tempting to avoid learning lessons from the past just because we find it irrelevant as the world has changed. But as per him, it is very much relevant and currently the inequality is rising in the same fashion as it had rose centuries ago. He says what if the levelling of the society would be done in the same way as it had been in the past – a bloodstained leveller!

Words to learn from this article:

Leveller: Something typically death, that affects people from every class and rank in the same way, making everyone seem equal
Disabuse: To free someone from a belief that is not true.
Blight: Spoil
Antebellum: It’s an adjective used to describe anything that is pre-American civil War
Predation: It’s the act of preying on animals. It can be visually painful to watch predation of an animal on a smaller, cuter animal
Archaic: Old fashioned
Forage: To forage means to wander around looking for food. In cold, birds may forage for food in your backyard

Reading Suggestion-2: Click to read full article

Reading Suggestion-3

Article Name: Matisse:Should China Deleverage?
Author name:Yu Yongding
Source: Project Syndicate
Category: Economics

Summary for this article:

The article talks about the two major problems surrounding the Chinese Economy that needs to be addressed before it becomes too late.

China has a high and rising debt-to-GDP ratio – China has moderate levels of household and government debt but its corporate debt-to-GDP ratio, at 170%, is the highest in the world. China’s corporate leverage (debt-to-equity) ratio is also very high, and rising.
But, the writer says that none of these seem like a real risk atleast not in the foreseeable future.

The real pressing problem is its overcapacity-driven deflation. Still, as per Moody’s reports, China’s debt-to-GDP ratio is a serious problem. But the writer says that when the Chinese economy is growing at roughly its potential rate, it makes no sense to lower the growth target below that rate.

The author gives his suggestions on what China could consider moving forward and concludes by saying that it must balance the debt problem with a more urgent need to maintain a growth rate more or less in line with potential, and prevent its economy from going into a debt-deflationary Spiral

Words to learn from this article:

Deleverage: To decrease or get rid of financial leverage by quickly paying off debts
CPI(Consumer Price Index): The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure that examines the weighted average of prices of a basket of consumer goods and services, such as transportation, food and medical care.(source: Investopedia)
PPI(Producer Price Index): The Producer Price Index (PPI) is a weighted index of prices measured at the wholesale, or producer level. (source: Investopedia)
Deflation: Deflation is a contraction in the supply of circulated money within an economy. (source: Investopedia)