by Dan Mitchell | Mar 11, 2026 | Blogs, Europe, Welfare and Entitlements
Since I’m currently in Europe as part of the Free Market Road Show, I’m going to share some more data (for other examples, see here, here, here, and here) on why the United States should not become more like Europe. As I noted a few years...
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...