Category:Poverty & Inequality
2022 is over and Soylent Green isn’t people
January 16, 2023 | Post
Soylent Green (1973), a dystopian sci-fi movie, depicts a world suffering from overpopulation, climate change, and extreme inequality, where the rich exploit and own the poor, who survive on the evil Soylent Corporation’s processed plankton. As 2022, the year in which Soylent Green was set, has now passed, the movie’s grim predictions of overpopulation have proven misguided.
Why was this year’s 4th of July cookout so expensive?
July 5, 2022 | Post
According to a survey from the American Farm Bureau Federation, the cost of an average 4th of July feast is up by 17 percent from 2021. Why is this?
Favelas and rental cars: lessons about property rights
April 26, 2022 | Post
What lessons can we learn about the importance of property rights from examples such as rental cars and Brazil’s favelas?
Build Back Better is more about handouts than human infrastructure
December 11, 2021 | Post
The Build Back Better Act is an attempt by the Biden administration to distribute handouts for specific sets of voters ahead of the 2022 midterms
Legends of Liberty: Thomas Sowell
November 11, 2021 | Post
Last week, we wrote about Frederic Bastiat, the king of communicating economic and philosophical ideas in simple, direct (and often funny) ways. Of course, in the 19th century, Bastiat’s medium was the printed word. But if you had to find an heir to his throne in the social media era, Thomas Sowell would be a […]
A tax on unrealized capital gains would have unprecedented destructive potential
November 6, 2021 | Post
If levied, the “billionaire tax” targeting unrealized capital gains would penalize entrepreneurship and have unprecedented destructive potential
U.S. sanctions are not responsible for the Cuban economic crisis
September 7, 2021 | Post
When a worsening economic crisis saw anti-government protests erupt in Cuba, the regime was quick to blame U.S. sanctions instead of its own policies
Why is Latin America so corrupt?
April 28, 2021 | Video
Ahead of his panel on Corruption and Poverty in Latin America at LibertyCon Europe, Juan Carlos Hidalgo, former policy analyst at the Cato Institute talks about why Latin America has so many cases of corruption, the recent protests in Chile and other countries around the world.
Is It Unfair to Pay CEOs Billions? Q&A with Prof. Howie Baetjer
January 29, 2018 | Video
Is it fair that CEOs get paid millions—even billions—while there are so many people still in poverty? Well, it depends! Watch the second entry in our question and answer series with Prof. Howie Baetjer.
Economic Freedom by the Numbers
October 30, 2017 | Video
What’s the evidence that economic freedom is beneficial for society? Prof. Antony Davies shows charts of the free market’s effects on unemployment, inequality, poverty, and even child labor.
What most Americans have never heard about extreme poverty
September 13, 2017 | Post
Why did poverty decrease so much over the past 200 years, and especially over the past 30 years? Let’s look at one key example; then we’ll zoom out to the broader research.
An Alternative to Welfare
August 21, 2017 | Video
Today’s welfare system discourages aspiring for the American dream. What if we tried a universal basic income instead? Watch the full interview with Prof. Munger
The Myth of Equality in the 1950s
August 9, 2017 | Video
Why do people keep saying the ‘50s were more “equal” than today? Perhaps they forget how many people were in poverty — or what the major unions did to African-Americans.
Capitalism could save lives with the most boring innovation of all
August 8, 2017 | Post
A combination of drought, political instability and poor policies is threatening the lives of thousands. Fortunately, for some herders, insurance products are helping to make a desperate situation a little bit better.
The Unprecedented Equality of the 21st Century
August 7, 2017 | Video
The rich get richer, and the poor get … cell phones, cars, and nice TVs? Prof. Mike Munger says we’re actually more equal than ever. Click to watch the full interview.
Federalism is not unfair.
July 25, 2017 | Post
Should the federal government provide a universal basic income for the states?
Why I deserve what you created: word count welfare
June 16, 2017 | Post
I am furious. I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and learned that my friend Steve Horwitz had written almost 3,000 words in a single day in his new book chapter on inequality.
Minimum wage laws don’t help the poor — opportunities do
May 29, 2017 | Post
If the problem is that the poor have too few options, it’s a bad “solution” to remove one of those options.
Income Inequality or Income Mobility: For What Should We Fight?
April 5, 2017 | Post
The rapid decline of poverty over the past forty years shows that there has never been more hope for rising incomes among the poor. We can help them best by promoting mobility through economic freedom.
Why libertarians should oppose the Universal Basic Income
March 24, 2017 | Post
Here’s my opening statement for my Students for Liberty debate with Will Wilkinson. Enjoy. Libertarians have a standard set of fundamental criticisms of the welfare state. Forced charity is unjust. Individuals have a moral right to decide if and when they want to help others. Forced charity is unnecessary. In a free market, voluntary donations […]
What should we do about luck?
March 17, 2017 | Post
What should we do about the fact that some people are able to earn more money than others? Should government redress the resulting disparities in income? The answer is often believed to hinge upon our conclusion about the role of luck in affecting income-earning abilities. Those on the political left emphasize factors beyond the individual’s […]
We are all living red-carpet lives now.
February 27, 2017 | Post
Last night, millions of movie buffs, entertainment fiends, and celebrity gawkers from across the globe tuned in for the Oscars. While a few of us aficionados waited with bated breath for the announcement of Best Live-Action Short (Timecode was robbed!), for many viewers the awards ceremony isn’t the main event: The red carpet is what […]
Why aid programs are harder to evaluate than dessert shops
February 22, 2017 | Post
Recently, at a Center for Global Development conference, attendees criticized a wide swath of development programs that, these experts say, provide no evidence they are achieving their objectives.
The many faces of means-testing
February 19, 2017 | Post
Isn’t a Universal Basic Income just another name for a negative income tax, such as Tax = -$10,000 + .3*Income? If so, isn’t a Universal Basic Income means-tested by definition?