Last Tuesday marked the 25th anniversary of the United Nations’ International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The date intentionally coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Call to Action, which saw the French anti-poverty campaigner Father Joseph Wresinski ask the international community, in front of 100,000 Parisians, to “strive to eradicate extreme poverty”. To mark … Continue reading The World’s Poorest People Are Getting Richer Faster than Anyone Else
Category: Economy
Absent any congressional action, between 1 million and 10 million workers and retirees will lose most of their promised pension benefits over the coming decades. It would be unfair to stave off those losses with taxpayer bailouts, and doing so would establish the precedent that the federal government will stand behind pension promises that it didn’t even … Continue reading Reform Underfunded Multiemployer Pension Plans. Don’t Make Taxpayers Bail Them Out.
Last month, several dozen religious leaders reaffirmed a number of radical economic propositions contained within the 1973 Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern. “Before God and a billion hungry neighbors, we must rethink our values regarding our present standard of living,” proclaims the document. The document goes on to lament the “materialism of our culture and the maldistribution … Continue reading The Gospel of Marx? Religious Leaders Call for ‘Redistribution’
In July, the mayor of San Francisco frankly stated that poverty in the city is so bad, that “there is more feces on the sidewalks than I’ve ever seen.” And it’s not just her – the local NBC investigative unit found a “dangerous mix of drug needles, garbage, and feces throughout downtown San Francisco.” While … Continue reading Why California Cities Are Becoming Unlivable
Venezuela’s inflation may hit 1 million percent by the end of the year, the International Monetary Fund announced in July. This incredible hyperinflation is reminiscent of Weimar Germany during the years immediately after World War I, in which wheelbarrows full of cash were required to buy bare essential items, like a loaf of bread. To counter the … Continue reading Inflation to Hit 1 Million Percent in Collapsing, Socialist Venezuela
How did our nation go from having a high-growth economy in the 19th and early 20th centuries, to struggling in recent years to achieve 3 percent annual growth? The American economy today is mixed: It is partly free, vibrant, prosperous, and entrepreneurial and partly unfree, obstructed, and lethargic. The free part is governed by the … Continue reading How the Left Misunderstands Free Markets
Some economists want to make it more expensive for the less well-off to enjoy a clear revealed pleasure: eating red and processed meat. The average household in the poorest fifth of the income distribution dedicates 1.3 percent of spending towards it. That’s over double average household spending in the richest quintile. Yet meat is now a new “public … Continue reading Why plans to impose a ‘Meat Tax’ are going to be a disaster
