Each unemployed person has a “reservation wage”–the minimum wage he or she insists on getting before accepting a job. Unemployment insurance and other social assistance programs increase that reservation wage, causing an unemployed person to remain unemployed longer.
Consider, for example, an unemployed person who is accustomed to making $15.00 an hour. On unemployment insurance this […]
Archive for the 'Poverty' Category
Mar11th2010
The Effects Of Unemployment Insurance
Published by in Economics, ModernPolitics and Poverty. 1 CommentFeb23rd2010
When Obama proposed his credit card regulations, economic theory predicted what would happen: harm those with less than perfect credit scores (primarily the poor). Bryan Caplan, professor of economics at George Mason University, explained it best when he wrote:
” When you make lending to high-risk people less attractive, the result is not worse terms for […]
Sep1st2009
“About 10 percent of infants die in their first year of life in Africa — still shockingly high, but considerably lower than the European average less than 100 years ago, let alone 800 years past. And about two thirds of Africans are literate — a level achieved in Spain only in the 1920s.” - Charles […]
May26th2009
” When you make lending to high-risk people less attractive, the result is not worse terms for low-risk people who have been profitable all along. The result is that high-risk people get less credit. They used to be able to get credit despite their credit-unworthiness by paying extra; if the law forbids this, why lend […]
May22nd2009
The Invisible Hand vs Charity
Published by in Capitalism, Chicanoism, Economics, Hispanics (Minority Issues), Personal and Poverty. 3 CommentsOne of the major problems I have with Chicano Studies is its overemphasis on altruistic ventures as opposed to “personal gain”. Becoming a community organizer, for example, is more encouraged than becoming an engineer. This was particularly important to me last year when my sister, being in her junior year of high school, was applying […]
May12th2009
“The Rich” Vs “Government”: Who Should Get More Money?
Published by in Economics, Myths, Poverty and Taxes. 4 CommentsScott Sumners, a professor of economics at Bentley University, in one of his lengthy posts, made this parenthetical statement:
[BTW, Bill Gates essentially taxed middle class consumers all over the developed world, and is giving almost all of the money to the disadvantged in poor countries. That’s something governments don’t do, and yet for his “monopoly […]
Jan26th2009
Developmental economist Bill Easterly has a blog called Aid Watch.
He starts off:
Today, I foist a new blog called Aid Watch on the blogosphere. The objective is to be brutally honest when aid is not helping the poor, but also praising it when it is.
The blog can be found here.
Jan17th2009
“Mr. Obama and the Democrats who favor labor standards in trade agreements mean well, for they intend to fight back at oppressive sweatshops abroad. But while it shocks Americans to hear it, the central challenge in the poorest countries is not that sweatshops exploit too many people, but that they don’t exploit enough. Talk to […]
Aug29th2008
Quote Of The Day
Published by in Economics, Education, Hispanics (Minority Issues), Inequality and Poverty. 0 Comments“Fifty percent of the variance in inequality in lifetime earnings is determined by age 18. The family plays a powerful role in shaping adult outcomes that is not fully recognised by current American policies. As programs are currently configured, interventions early in the lives of disadvantaged children have substantially higher economic returns than later interventions […]
Apr30th2008
The Argument Against Regulations
Published by in Economics, Hispanics (Minority Issues), Myths, Personal and Poverty. 0 CommentsBacon-wrapped hot dogs are common in downtown Los Angeles and especially in Mexican border cities. Tijuana, for example, has a vendor at almost every corner. Well now, apparently, Los Angeles is trying to ban the cart sale of these very delicious bacon-wrapped hot dogs.
As a huge fan of bacon-wrapped hot dogs (I’ve eaten more […]
Apr18th2008
Milton Friedman On Race, Poverty And Government
Published by in Capitalism, Chicanoism, Discrimination, Economics, Education, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues), Minimum Wage, ModernPolitics, Myths, Poverty, Vouchers and affirmative action. 2 CommentsYou need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video
From an old speech but just as relevant today as it was then.
Apr1st2008
“We examine changes in the characteristics of American youth between the late 1970s and the late 1990s, with a focus on characteristics that matter for labor market success. We reweight the NLSY79 to look like the NLSY97 along a number of dimensions that are related to labor market success, including race, gender, parental background, education, […]
Mar17th2008
“Not only are government subsidies for government tuition unnecessary, they also victimize the truly disadvantaged people in our society: those who lack the educational qualifications to go to college in the first place (usually due to a combination of poor public schooling and a flawed family environment). These people pay some of the taxes that […]
Mar11th2008
Brad Schiller, professor of economics at American University and the University of Nevada, Reno writes on the inequality myth:
While there is some substance to these fears of widening inequality and middle-class stagnation, the situation is not nearly as clear-cut. Demographic changes in the size and composition of U.S. households have distorted the statistics in important […]
Feb19th2008
“The number of poor people who can’t afford food for their children is a lot smaller than it used to be — thanks to capitalism. Capitalism didn’t create malnutrition, it reduced it. The globalization of capitalism from 1950 to the present has increased annual average income in the world to $7,000 from $2,000. Contrary to […]
Feb12th2008
Quote Of The Day
Published by in (modern day) Liberalism, Discrimination, Economics, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues), Myths, Poverty and affirmative action. 2 Comments“There was very little civil rights law before Title VII; nevertheless the black-white income differential narrowed more rapidly in that benighted era than it has since. It is possible that antidiscrimination laws do not benefit their intended beneficiaries, because they give the beneficiaries a sense of entitlement and victimhood, foster tokenism, increase employers’ costs, cast […]
