When people talk about the 1996 welfare reform bill, they tend to focus on the law’s destruction of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). And for good reason. According to Danilo Trisi’s analysis of TRIM microdata, extreme poverty among children nearly tripled in the years after the new welfare regime was implemented. But welfare… Continue reading Poor Disabled Children Pushed Off of SSI Because of Welfare Reform Had Horrible Lives
Year: 2017
Has Underemployment Among College Graduates Gone Up?
Steve Matthews has a piece in Bloomberg arguing that the underemployment rate among young college graduates remains elevated and that this is a sign that the labor market is unhealthy and that labor market slack still remains. I am sympathetic to the idea that the labor market remains unhealthy and that slack still remains, but… Continue reading Has Underemployment Among College Graduates Gone Up?
Why Consumption Taxes are Fine
In my last post, I said that it would be good if the US imposed a consumption tax such as the value-added tax (VAT). Critics generally say that these kinds of taxes are bad because they are “regressive.” While it is true that they are regressive under the way that word is generally used, that… Continue reading Why Consumption Taxes are Fine
The VAT Tax
A value-added tax (VAT) is a consumption tax. It is not meaningfully different from a sales tax except in the way that it is collected. Donald Trump is reportedly considering a value-added tax as part of his tax plan. It seems unlikely that such a tax would pass into law given the current Congress. But… Continue reading The VAT Tax
College Degrees for Child Care?
According to the Washington Post, DC is now requiring child care workers to have a college degree: More than a decade after Washington, D.C., set out to create the most comprehensive public preschool system in the country, the city is directing its attention to overhauling the patchwork of programs that serve infants and toddlers. The… Continue reading College Degrees for Child Care?