by Dan Mitchell | Jan 25, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Economics, Welfare and Entitlements
If you don’t want to be depressed, you should stop reading right now. You probably know that we’ve been suffering because of a rising burden of government spending. And you probably understand that much of the problem is the relentless growth of redistribution and...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 24, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Education, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
What’s more realistic: A unicorn, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, or a successful government program? This isn’t a trick question. Even though I’ve presented both theoretical and empirical arguments against government spending, that doesn’t mean every government...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 6, 2013 | Big Government, Blogs, Tax Competition, Taxation, Welfare and Entitlements
Three years ago, I put together a “Moocher Index” that measured the degree to which non-poor people in a state were benefiting from redistribution programs. As you can see if you click on the nearby table, Vermont was the worst state, followed by Mississippi, Maine,...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 26, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs, Europe, Government Spending, Welfare and Entitlements
Back in 2011, I linked to a simple chart that illustrated how handouts and subsidies create very high implicit marginal tax rates for low-income people and explained how “generosity” from the government leads to a tar-paper effect that limits upward mobility. Earlier...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 11, 2012 | Big Government, Blogs
I’ve written and pontificated about the problem of government-created dependency and how the welfare state traps people in poverty. I also shared this dramatic chart showing how redistribution programs create shockingly high implicit marginal tax rates for those with...
