May 2, 2023 ~ Burton Abrams, 'Progressives Are Declaring War on Basic Economics' "Progressives deny basic economic principles and theory. They deny that incentives matter, that markets work better than government dictates, that scarcity and opportunity costs exist, that the laws of supply and demand are operative, that benefit-cost analyses have merit, and that economic efficiency makes consumers and producers better off." "If progressives deny economics, what criteria do they use for decision-making? They rely heavily on the vaguely defined concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion." Spoiler alert: Their approach does not work at all. [CRT DIE Wokeness, Economics, Poverty]
Jan 8, 2023 ~ New book 'The Myth of American Inequality' debunks the myth that there is a lot of inequality in the US. The reported poverty rate is 12% but that doesn't account for transfer payments. Real rate is 2% and those are very difficult cases. Also debunks the stagnant wages myth. [Economics, Poverty]
Nov 4, 2022 ~ Bono: “I thought that if we just redistributed resources, then we could solve every problem. I now know that’s not true. There’s a funny moment when you realize that...the off-ramp out of extreme poverty is... commerce, it’s entrepreneurial capitalism.” [Economics, Poverty]
Sep 22, 2022 ~ Veronique de Rugy 'A Fact Worth Repeating', The child poverty rate is highly misleading. "If the Census Bureau had included the missing $1.9 trillion in transfer payments, child poverty would have been only 3.2% in 2017, compared with the official rate of 17.5%." [Poverty]
Oct 10, 2021 ~ Socialist Venezuela slides deeper into its predictable poverty. Now 76.6% of Venezuelans now live in extreme poverty, rising nearly 10% in a single year. Long list of Democrats who had praised Venezuela's move toward socialism. They want to bring that kind of poverty to the USA. [Economics, Poverty, Socialism]
Aug 2, 2021 ~ VP Harris' office releases a document called "Root Causes Strategy" which says all we have to do to slow illegal immigration is solve world poverty and climate change. Neither will ever happen. Can't even do it here. Trump had illegal immigration solved but they threw it away. [Climate Change, Harris, Immigration, Poverty]
Oct 22, 2020 ~ Larry Elder, 'The No. 1 problem in the Black community is that 70% of Black kids are [raised out of wedlock]... kids growing up without a father are 5 times more likely to live in poverty, 9 times more likely to drop out of school and 20 times more likely to end up in prison. [Crime, Education, Larry Elder, Poverty, Race]
Aug 12, 2020 ~ Warren Beatty, 'The Myth that Is Systemic Racism'. Shows the black white wage gap can almost be entirely explained by blacks dropping out of high school at 2X the rate of whites and 2X fatherless homes. Blacks who finish high school, don't have out of wedlock kids are not poor. [Fake Racism, Poverty, Education]
Jun 24, 2020 ~ Senator Tim Scott on one aspect of poverty in the black community, 'If you have two parents in the household, you reduce poverty in the African-American community by 85%. That's a stunning truth that needs more oxygen.' [Poverty, Race]
Aug 13, 2019 ~ Fatherless homes: 90% of runaways, 71% of pregnant teenagers, 63% of youth suicides, 71% of high school dropouts, 70% of juveniles in state-operated institutions, 'twice as likely to drop out of high school and twice as likely to end up in jail.' 26 of 27 deadliest mass shooters. [Guns-Mass Shootings, Poverty, Education]
Apr 12, 2019 ~ Dallas County district attorney John Creuzot said his office will no longer prosecute 'theft of necessary items' up to $750. Doesn't want to 'Criminalizing poverty' but encouraging shoplifting is not a good way to help poor people. Businesses will take the entire hit and leave. [Economics, Crime, Poverty]
Jan 7, 2019 ~ Marriage rates are way down and out of wedlock births are way up except for upper middle class and rich people. 'finishing school, getting a job, getting married, THEN having children leads to a remarkably strong bulwark against poverty' [Poverty]
Aug 16, 2018 ~ Paul Driessen, 'Rejecting Carbon Colonialism'. Trump is helping Africa far more than Obama enabling the African Development Bank, AfDB to invest in realistic energy vs. Obama who held them back trying to lock them into impractical renewables that would lock them into poverty. [Trump Win, Climate Change, Poverty]
Aug 12, 2018 ~ Cal Thomas, 'The Seduction of Socialism' - Young people signing up out of ignorance and entitlement - ignorant of history of 100s of millions of deaths, mass starvations and poverty - numbers don't add up - Medicare for all would cost $32 Trillion [Socialism, Poverty, Entitlements]
Jul 22, 2018 ~ The Washington Post claims Nikki Haley said there were only 250,000 people in poverty in the US - she did not - she asks them to retract and they say ok but do not - she has to publicly ask a 2nd time before they finally retract their fake news. [Fake News, Poverty]
Jul 15, 2018 ~ Nikki Haley, 'The United Nations' Patently Ridiculous Report on American Poverty' - dozens of countries are consumed by extreme poverty and they pick the nation where its extremely rare - very misleading - ignores the entire safety net. Based in anti-US bias, not in reality. [Poverty, Politics]
Apr 16, 2018 ~ David French, 'It's Right and Necessary to Let Boys Be Boys' Lack of fathers present is the biggest problem black kids face in both poor and non-poor neighborhoods - when they have fathers around they often do well but that is too often not the situation. [Poverty, Race]
Sep 24, 2017 ~ W. Bradford Wilcox 'Why Marriage Matters, It greatly reduces the risk of poverty' You are almost certain to avoid poverty if you follow the 'Success Sequence'. Finish high school, get married and start a family IN THAT ORDER. 97% of millennials who did that are not in poverty. [Poverty, Economics]
Sep 23, 2017 ~ Walter Williams, "The Welfare State's Legacy" 'The No. 1 problem among blacks is the effects stemming from a very weak family structure.' 75% of black children born are out of wedlock. Used to be 11%. Main cause of poverty, crime etc. Not 'a legacy of slavery' or due to racism. [Walter Williams, Entitlements, Race, Crime, Poverty]
Jun 19, 2017 ~ 3 things that prevent poverty no matter your race - finish high school, get a full-time job -any job-, and wait to be married before having your first child - skip any of these and you are likely poor no matter your race - fathers are key [Poverty, Economics]