The reason poor people face so many problems is that they do not have very much money. This seems like a simple point, so simple in fact that even raising it borders on condescension. But this fact seems lost on a great number of so-called activists. One such group of activists are those who call… Continue reading Confusion around food deserts
Author: Matt Bruenig
The poor pay 16x higher excise tax rate than the rich
The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities put out a nice series of charts today detailing the distributional impact of various regressive taxes in the United States. One of the findings is that the lowest quintile of households pay 1.6% of their income in excise taxes each year while the top 1% pay only 0.1%… Continue reading The poor pay 16x higher excise tax rate than the rich
Further rebuttal of just desert theory
I recently explained how the just desert framework does not actually lead to the conclusion conservatives claim it does. The just desert framework emphasizes compensating people according to how much they produce. Conservatives think that this framework leads to the conclusion that laissez-faire capitalism is the most just economic form. I raise the objection that… Continue reading Further rebuttal of just desert theory
Welfare for the rich
Matt Yglesias has a nice chart today comparing the cost of the mortgage interest tax deduction to the cost of other kinds of housing subsidies: It turns out that the mortgage interest deduction absolutely dwarfs the housing subsidies provided primarily for low-income renters. The mortgage interest tax deduction skews to the wealthy for a few… Continue reading Welfare for the rich
Desert theory and social Darwinism
Recently, President Obama dismissed the new Paul Ryan budget as social Darwinism. Paul Ryan’s budget slashes spending on social programs for the poor while simultaneously massively cutting taxes on the very wealthy. That is, relative to the present, it redistributes money from the poor to the rich. Paul Ryan has never specifically spelled out which… Continue reading Desert theory and social Darwinism