by Dan Mitchell | Oct 16, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
Federal government redistribution programs don’t work. We’ve ignored the lessons of history about the dangers of government intervention, so is it any mystery that we now have millions of people mired in dependency. Yet some people in Washington want to double down on...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 27, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Welfare and Entitlements
It’s no exaggeration to say that a nation’s long-run vitality and prosperity are correlated with the spirit of independence and self-reliance among its people. Simply stated, if too many people thinks it’s okay to ride in the wagon of government dependency, that a...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 23, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
As we get deeper into an election season, many politicians feel compelled to discuss how to deal with poverty. And some of them may even be serious about trying to improve the system. This hopefully will lead to big-picture discussions of key issues, such as why the...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 22, 2015 | Blogs, Economics, Free Market
The biggest mistake of well-meaning leftists is that they place too much value on good intentions and don’t seem to care nearly as much about good results. Pope Francis is an example of this unfortunate tendency. His concern for the poor presumably is genuine, but he...
by Dan Mitchell | Sep 8, 2015 | Big Government, Blogs, Europe, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
Back in 2013, my colleagues at the Cato Institute, Michael Tanner and Charles Hughes, released a study looking at the value of welfare programs in various states. The most shocking finding was that the overall package of welfare benefits was greater than the median...
