by Dan Mitchell | Feb 16, 2026 | Blogs, Europe, Free Market
The good news is that Europe has a lot of economic freedom by world standards. Especially Western Europe. The bad news is that economic freedom has been declining in Western Europe. To make matters worse, Europe has a big demographic problem,...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 7, 2026 | Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
I wrote recently about how government handouts are creating dependency (perhaps deliberately) for low-income Americans, and I elaborated on this topic for Austin Peterson’s show. The real issue in this debate, as discussed in my two-part series...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 2, 2026 | Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
Today’s column features a very depressing chart from a report published last year by the Congressional Budget Office and it shows that poor people now get about three-fourths of their “income” from handouts. That’s far different from the data in 1979, when poor people...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 28, 2026 | Blogs, Economics, Taxation, Welfare and Entitlements
Every year or so, I share data showing that a European-sized welfare state requires massive tax increases on lower-income and middle-class household. Let’s add another to the list. Here’s a chart comparing tax burdens on middle-class Americans and middle-class people...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 14, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, Welfare and Entitlements
I have a five-part series (here, here, here, here, and here) explaining that demographic decline will lead to fiscal crisis. The main takeaway is that entitlement programs are a ticking time bomb, and I castigate politicians who want...
