Category: Poverty & income gap
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The Wonk Salon, November 4, 2011
The Local Influence on Prison Population Size Urban Institute Local governments have three main policy levers for affecting the number of inmates in their jails and prisons: sentencing, inmate transfer and release, and supervision violation response. Who Uses Tax Incentives for Economic Development? National Bureau of Economic Research Who uses taxes incentives? Losers, that’s who.…
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Work Ethic, the Welfare State and the Income Gap
by James A. Bacon Once again, Bacon sallies forth into the debate over the rising income gap… The latest piece to catch my eye is a new paper, “The Swedish Model Reassessed: Affluence Despite the Welfare State,” by a Finn, Nima Sanandaji, and published by the Helsinki-based Libera Foundation (which, as far as I know,…
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Please, Can We Get Serious about the Wealth Gap?
by James A. Bacon While the United States economy has grown over the past three decades, there is a widespread belief, reflected most recently in the Occupy Wall Street movement, that the poor get poorer while the rich get richer. While the rich may be getting richer, the poor are not getting poorer. The widespread…
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The Wealth Gap Getting Less… Gappy
by James A. Bacon Curse those greedy rich people! They’re making way too much money, not paying their fair share in taxes and grinding the noses of the peasants into the dirt. The wealth gap just gets worse and worse. If only we could close it, life for the “99%” would get so much better!…
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The High-Beta Rich
by James A. Bacon Poor Jaqueline Siegel. She’s another victim of the credit crunch. Her steel- and wood-frame Florida home remains unfinished. As she stands on the deck of her Florida room, she wipes away tears as she speaks to a Wall Street Journal writer. “Maybe it will still work out,” she says. “It always…
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Low-Skilled Workers Take It on the Chin
OK, I was wrong (sort of). Now I’m fessing up. So, get over it. While the labor market has deteriorated markedly since the onset of the Great Recession, job losses for low-skilled workers have been especially devastating. And nowhere in the country (literally, nowhere, except in Tennessee) have low-skilled workers been more likely to lose…
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Virginia’s Skewed Prosperity
by James A. Bacon In its latest study, “Unbalanced, Unequal and Undercut: The State of Working Virginia,” the Commonwealth Institute (CI) has picked a timely topic, conducted some excellent research, displayed some fascinating Virginia-specific data…. and created a terribly misleading impression. The center-left think tank reports that wages in Virginia have rebounded from the recession…
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The Wonk Salon, October 6, 2011
Non-Precinct Voting on the Rise Baker Institute Non-precinct voting (either early in person or by mail) has been on the rise over the past 15 years and could become a majority of all voting as Americans place a greater emphasis on convenience. Hunger Costs America $168 Billion a Year Center for American Progress Add up…
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The Wonk Salon, September 29, 2011
Alcohol Wholesalers Seek to Preserve Regulatory Fiefdoms Competitive Enterprise Institute Alcohol wholesalers run to Congress to preserve regulatory fiefdoms eroded by a recent court case. Count on a Republican to craft the anti-free market legislation. Foreign Teachers: Exploited and Exploiters Center for Immigration Studies The importation of teachers from the Philippines under temporary worker programs…
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Second Chart of the Day: How Not to End Poverty
Poverty in the United States declined dramatically in the Post World War II era until 1970 or so, and then it plateaued. In other words, poverty fell until the federal government declared war on it. Then the very institutions that the welfare state erected to ameliorate poverty ended up perpetuating poverty. (Source for the chart:…
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Map of the Day: Biggest Losers
Source: Brookings Institution, “Parsing U.S. Poverty at the Metropolitan Level,” by Alan Berube Ouch. My home metro of Richmond is looking pretty bad, with an increase in poverty in the 5% to 10% range. Good to see that Hampton Roads is holding its own. — JAB
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The Wonk Salon, September 15, 2011
Biiig Medical Malpractice Reform in Texas Texas Public Policy Foundation Texas was bleeding doctors before 2003 when the state enacted comprehensive medical malpractice reform. The Texas Medical Board has received 83 percent more applications and licensed 60 percent more doctors in the past four years than in the four years preceding reform. Does Staunton Really…
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Chart of the Day: The Great Divergence
This chart comes from a new paper by Shawn Fremsted, “Talking about Poverty in a Jobs and Economy Framework,” published by the Center for Economic Policy Research. Fremsted’s aim is to to re-cast the debate over poverty, which opinion polls show most Americans don’t care about, to one of “jobs” or the “economy,” which appeals…
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Good Intentions Bring Terrible Results
What’s holding back black Americans? Government, not discrimination by James A. Bacon After nearly a half-century of government-led exertion to lift black Americans out of poverty, how are they faring? New data and research tell the story. According to census data, 26 percent of blacks, compared with 10 percent of whites, lived in poverty in…
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Warren Buffett on Taxing the Rich
In response to the post composed by Peter the Menshevik, er, mensch, below, I have dusted off and updated an old column that languished unpublished in my files. JAB When President Obama justifies raising taxes on “the rich” – billionaires, millionaires and anyone making more than $250,000 a year – he cites as a moral…