About two years ago, I shared a map put together by a pro-statism organization that supposedly showed that welfare benefits were very miserly and not sufficiently generous to lift people out of poverty. My gut instinct was to reject the findings. As I wrote at the…
Daily Analysis
Left-Wing Nursery Rhymes
I’ve already shared the statist version of the fairy tale about The Little Red Hen. And I’ve also shared the Obama version of the fable about The Ant and the Grasshopper. So how about the left-wing version of The Little Engine that Could. Or, in this case, couldn’t. I…
Which State Has the Most Self-Reliant People?
Back in 2010, I put together a “Moocher Index” as a rough measure of which states had the highest levels of welfare dependency after adjusting for poverty rates. My goal was to answer this question. Is there a greater willingness to sign up for income redistribution…
Thomas Sowell Explains How the Welfare State Hurts the Poor
Political cartoonists like Michael Ramirez and Chuck Asay are effective because they convey so much with images. But we need more than clever cartoons if we’re going to educate the general population about how government harms the economy and undermines freedom. And…
I Made a $16 Trillion Mistake, but Still Had a Stronger Position in this Debate
I’ve done a handful of TV debates on Social Security, including the time I said that I wished Republicans had a secret plan for personal retirement accounts. So I thought I was well prepared for this duel with a defender of the status quo on Fox Business Network. I…
UFOs, Faked Moon Landings, and Fiscal Policy
I was very pleased to report the other day that the people of France overwhelmingly favor spending cuts, even when they were asked a biased question that presupposed that Keynesian-style spending increases would “stimulate” the economy. Now I have some polling data…
How the Welfare State Erodes Social Capital, as Illustrated by a Chuck Asay Cartoon
I’m a big fan of Chuck Asay’s political cartoons. My favorite is his nothing-left-to-steal masterpiece. And his tractor cartoon and his regime-uncertainty cartoon are brilliant indictments of Obamanomics. Here’s another classic. It shows the impact of the welfare…
Unexpected Praise for Australia’s Private Social Security System
One reason I’m so bullish on Australia is that the nation has a privatized Social Security system called “Superannuation,” with workers setting aside 9 percent of their income in personal retirement accounts (rising to 12 percent by 2020). Established almost 30 years…
Another Horrifying and Depressing Look at the Human Cost of the Welfare State
When we think of Julia, the mythical moocher created by the Obama campaign, our first instinct is probably to grab our wallets and purses. After all, she symbolizes the entitlement mindset, as illustrated by this Ramirez cartoon. But let’s think of this from Julia’s…
Will Growing Dependency and Erosion of Social Capital Turn America into Europe?
One of my favorite political cartoons is this Michael Ramirez gem showing President Obama following the European lemmings over the cliff of statism. But this isn’t a laughing matter. As shown in this remarkable graph on global living standards, Americans enjoy…