Social Capital, Culture, Markets, and Institutions

by Dan Mitchell | Nov 19, 2014 | Blogs, Economics, Free Market

When I wrote last week about “social capital” as a key determinant of long-run prosperity, I didn’t realize I would generate a lot of feedback. Including several requests for more information. Which creates a small problem since the field is so large that it’s...

A Picture of How Redistribution Programs Trap the Less Fortunate in Lives of Dependency

by Dan Mitchell | Jul 14, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements

I wrote last year about the way in which welfare programs lead to very high implicit marginal tax rates on low-income people. More specifically, they lose handouts when they earn income. As such, it is not very advantageous for them to climb the economic ladder...

New York Leads the List of the Five Biggest Moocher States…and Utah Tops the List of the Five Most Self-Reliant States

by Dan Mitchell | Apr 26, 2011 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements

I may have to stop being a New York Yankees fan. The state of my birth is a national embarrassment. People in the Empire State are national champions in the contest to rip off their fellow citizens according to analysis from USA Today. West Virginia, however, is the...

What Rabid, Hate-the-Poor, Right Wingers Uttered these Spiteful Words?

by Dan Mitchell | Nov 27, 2010 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements

Here’s a passage from a speech by a well-known political figure, but it wasn’t Ronald Reagan, Ron Paul, or Milton Friedman. The lessons of history, confirmed by the evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a...