My longest friendship was with Edgar, a friend I met in the 6th grade. He was, like me, a child of immigrant parents and he spoke primarily Spanish. He loved to joke, tell stories, and that favorite of past times, sit around with your closest friends and make fun of each other.
Unfortunately, he was also […]
Archive for the 'Welfare' Category
Feb13th2007
Poverty In The United States
Published by in Economics, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues), Personal, Poverty and Welfare. 26 CommentsJan16th2007
Milton Friedman On Government
Published by in Capitalism, Economics, General, Poverty and Welfare. 0 CommentsIn 1975 Milton Friedman appeared on The Open Mind, a television show that is no longer showing, and in the interview he gave the fundamental problem with using the government to solve social problems:
And that is the fallacy — this is at the bottom of it — the fallacy that it is feasible and possible […]
Jan11th2007
The US Economy In Perspective
Published by in Capitalism, Economics, Europe, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues), Personal, Poverty and Welfare. 6 CommentsMark J. Perry, professor of finance and business economics at the University of Michigan, puts the US economy in perspective:
The unemployment rate in Canada just hit a 30-year low of 6.1% in December, the lowest rate since 1977 when Pierre Trudeau was Canada’s prime minister and Jimmy Carter was U.S. president. During the last U.S. […]
Dec7th2006
“One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results. We all know a famous road that is paved with good intentions. The people who go around talking about their soft heart — I share their — I admire them for the softness of their heart, but […]
Nov25th2006
The Other Milton Friedman: A Conservative With a Social Welfare Program
Published by in DayToDay, Economics, General and Welfare. 0 CommentsRobert Frank, an economist at the Johnson School of Cornell University, writes in the New York Times:
The Other Milton Friedman: A Conservative With a Social Welfare Program
By ROBERT H. FRANK
Published: November 23, 2006
Milton Friedman, who died last week at 94, was the patron saint of small-government conservatism. Conservatives who invoke his name in defense of […]
Nov13th2006
Quote Of The Day
Published by in (modern day) Liberalism, Economics, General and Welfare. 0 Comments“To dole out relief is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. The federal government must and shall quit the business of relief.” –Franklin D. Roosevelt
Nov8th2006
The recent winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Muhammad Yunus, explains why he prefers to help the world’s poor with loans rather than grants of financial aid:
Many people ask, Why not just give free cash, especially under such dire circumstances? In Bangladesh, we’ve learned that when aid is free, not only do the poor get […]
Oct26th2006
Quote Of The Day
Published by in (modern day) Liberalism, Capitalism, Economics, Education, General, HealthCare, ModernPolitics, Poverty, SocialSecurity and Welfare. 0 Comments“I believe that in reality what has helped the less fortunate is economic growth. Today’s elderly are affluent not because of Social Security, but because of all of the wealth created by private sector innovation over their lifetimes. Government involvement in health care and education is an impediment to progress in those fields. Job training […]
Oct16th2006
“There are two main utilitarian arguments against liberal welfare benefits: First, poverty is almost always caused by bad choices—bad for those who make them, bad for their childen, and bad for society as a whole. The big one is having children out of wedlock. Liberal welfare benefits greatly diminish the cost—particularly the short-run costs—of making […]
Sep6th2006
Quote Of The Day
Published by in (modern day) Liberalism, Economics, General, Poverty and Welfare. 1 Comment” Most of us want to help. It makes us feel bad to think of neglected children and rat-infested slums, and we are happy to pay for the thought that people who are good at taking care of such things are out there. If the numbers of neglected children and the numbers […]
Aug10th2006
How The European Welfare State Affects Women
Published by in Economics, Europe, General and Welfare. 0 CommentsNewsweek writes:
Here’s a pop quiz on gender equality. In which part of the world are women most likely to reach the highest rungs of power? Choice A offers new moms 12 weeks of maternity leave, almost no subsidized child care, no paid paternity leave and has a notoriously hard-driving business culture. Choice B gives them […]
Aug9th2006
Welfare Reform - 10 Years Later
Published by in (modern day) Liberalism, Economics, General, Myths, Poverty and Welfare. 6 CommentsThe 10th anniversary of the landmark welfare reform bill of 1996 is here and it is a good idea to reflect on what exactly resulted and contrast that to what people were predicting would happen. Ron Haskins, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, writes:
It would be difficult to exaggerate the predictions of doom […]
Jun8th2006
Quote Of The Day
Published by in Discrimination, Economics, Europe, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues), Immigration and Welfare. 0 Comments“On the face of it, America’s welfare system is harsher and less hospitable than Europe’s, something that many liberals lament. But in this respect, at least, that appearance is misleading. The unintended consequences of Europe’s milder regime are not just a looming fiscal collapse but also, in the meantime, intensifying and plainly self-destructive […]
May31st2006
A Plan to Replace the Welfare State
Published by in Economics, General, Poverty and Welfare. 0 CommentsMany people have the false impression that conservatives and libertarians have no real solutions to solving poverty aside from simply turning the poor over to ‘unfettered capitalism’, and allowing what results to result, with no government assistance.
That is certainly not the case, and here to show a perfectly conservative/libertarian replacement of the welfare state is […]
Oct6th2005
“But a solution to persistent poverty does not lie in providing the poor money; it lies in their learning valuable skills and to make better choices that affect their lives. To its credit, throughout the documentary it is revealed that the poor are of course overwhelmingly high school dropouts and/or single parents (mostly mothers because […]
Aug2nd2005
The Problem With Using The Government To Solve Social Problems
Published by in Economics, General, Poverty and Welfare. 0 CommentsProfessor of economics Walter Williams explains the problems with using the government to fix social problems:
Consider two options for a homeless family. A church or some other non-governmental entity might offer a homeless family shelter in return for the family’s performance of chores such as cleaning the kitchen, mowing the lawn and washing windows. By […]
