Tag Archives : England
The Moral Bankruptcy of the U.K.’s Faux Conservative Government
As an advocate of small government, I’m often distressed that I sometimes have to rely on Republicans in Washington to fight statism. Why am I distressed? Because some of the worst people in Washington are GOPers. They may give lip service to fiscal responsibility when campaigning, but then conveniently forget that rhetoric when it’s time […]
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Some Much-Needed Remedial Public Finance Economics for David Cameron and other Statists
In a recent interview with the BBC, I basically accused UK Prime Minister David Cameron of being a feckless and clueless demagogue who is engaged in a desperate effort to resuscitate his political future. I shouldn’t have been so kind. Cameron manages to combine bad policy and bad morality in a way that is embarrassing […]
read more...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 about British voters, though I confess I’m not sure whether to be pleased […]
read more...The United Kingdom Boldly Rejoins the Government Incompetence and Stupidity Contest
I periodically compare the actions of brainless politicians and bureaucrats in both the United States and the United Kingdom. One of the most bizarre examples I cited was from England. It showed how a local government decided to install the most pointless sign in the history of the world. Our British friends are famous for […]
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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 perspective and speculate about what it will mean for her life. […]
read more...George Orwell Surely Would Be Amused by the Statolatry in the United Kingdom
In previous posts, I’ve expressed pessimism about the future of the United Kingdom, largely because all political parties have a statist mentality. I criticized Gordon Brown, the former Labor Party Prime Minister, for being a compulsive redistributionist, big spender, and taxaholic. But nothing’s really changed under Tory leadership. David Cameron is a vacuous statist, undermining […]
read more...Thanks to the Welfare Hammock, Here’s another Horror Story about Deadbeats Sponging Off British Taxpayers
Here are some odious details from the UK-based Sun. Danny Creamer, 21, and Gina Allan, 18, spend each day watching their 47in flatscreen TV and smoking 40 cigarettes between them in their comfy two-bedroom flat. It is all funded by the taxpayer, yet the couple say they deserve sympathy because they are “trapped”. Does this […]
read more...Is Anybody Surprised that Krugman Was Wrong about U.K. Fiscal Policy?
Just like in the United States, politicians in the United Kingdom use the deceptive practice of “baseline budgeting” as part of fiscal policy. This means the politicians can increase spending, but simultaneously claim they are cutting spending because the budget could have expanded at an even faster pace. Sort of like saying your diet is […]
read more...How the Welfare State Traps the Poor in Dependency, the British Version
Back in 2011, I linked to a simple chart that illustrated how handouts and subsidies create very high implicit marginal tax rates for low-income people and explained how “generosity” from the government leads to a tar-paper effect that limits upward mobility. Earlier this year, I shared an amazing chart that specifically measured how the welfare […]
read more...Will Obama Learn from England’s Laffer Curve Mistake?
Obama’s main goal in the fiscal cliff negotiations is to impose a class-warfare tax hike. He presumably thinks this will give the government more money to spend, but recent evidence from the United Kingdom suggests that he won’t get nearly as much money as he thinks. Why? Because there’s this thing called the Laffer Curve. […]
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