I’m a pessimist about public policy for two simple reasons: 1) Seeking power and votes, elected officials generally can’t resist making short-sighted and politically motivated choices that expand the burden of government. 2) Voters are susceptible to bribery, particularly over time as social capital(the work ethic, spirit of self reliance, etc) erodes and the entitlement mentality takes […]
read more...I’ve written many times about America’s looming fiscal collapse, and I’ve also pontificated about America’s costly and failed welfare state. I even have speculated about when America reaches a tipping point, with too many people riding in the wagon of government dependency (as illustrated bythese famous cartoons, which even have a Danish equivalent). If you read all my posts on these issues, I […]
read more...I periodically (some would say over and over and over again, though occasionally made more palatable by using humor and cartoons) warn that the United States should not become a European-style welfare state. But I wonder whether I spend enough time explaining why this would be a bad idea. After all, some people may think that you get more security and benefits with the […]
read more...About one year ago, I decided to create a “Moocher Hall of Fame” to highlight how certain people went above and beyond the call of indolence in their efforts to sponge off taxpayers. This award isn’t for ordinary deadbeats. You have to do something really special (the bad kind of special) to get recognized. * […]
read more...Back in 2010, I shared a video that predicted a catastrophic end to the welfare state. I said it was an example of “Libertarian Porn” because: …it is designed for the dark enjoyment of people who think the government is destroying the nation. If you don’t like bloated government and statist intervention and you think that the […]
read more...My all-time most-viewed blog post wasn’t the parable about beer and the tax system. Nor was it the joke about California, Texas, and the Coyote. Those won the silver and bronze trophies. The gold medal belongs to the two pictures that explain how the welfare state begins and how it ends. Those images make a very serious point that […]
read more...When I posted a video about “libertarian porn” back in 2010, readers presumably were either relieved or disappointed that there was no nudity. I may get the same reaction today, because we’re going to have a discussion – but only G-rated – about what our British friends are referring to as “poverty porn.” More specifically, that’s the term […]
read more...There’s an old joke about two guys camping in the woods, when suddenly they see a hungry bear charging over a hill in their direction. One of the guys starts lacing up his sneakers and his friend says, “What are you doing? You can’t outrun a bear.” The other guys says, I don’t have to […]
read more...Washington is in the middle of another debate about redistributing money. But that’s hardly newsworthy. Politics, after all, is basically a never-ending racket in which insiders buy votes and accumulate power with other people’s money. The current debate about extending unemployment benefits is remarkable, though (at least from an economic perspective), because certain politicians want to give people money on […]
read more...I’ve shared many charts over the years, but two of the most compelling ones deal with poverty. The numbers in this chart, which are based on Census Bureau data and scholarly studies (see here, here, here, and here), show that the poverty rate was steadily falling in the United States – until the federal government decided to launch a so-called […]
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