The way journalists report on the fiscal costs of spending programs is extremely unhelpful. The norm is to give some dollar amount projected over a decade. The problem with this norm is that a raw dollar figure does not tell the audience a whole lot. Is $100 million a lot? Is $100 billion a lot?… Continue reading The US Should Spend at Least $15 Trillion More on Welfare
Author: Matt Bruenig
Education Is Just Another Issue
In his piece about DC’s failed school voucher program, David Leonhardt had this to say: [E]ducation isn’t just another issue. It is the most powerful force for accelerating economic growth, reducing poverty and lifting middle-class living standards. Well-educated adults earn much more, live longer and are happier than poorly educated adults. When researchers try to… Continue reading Education Is Just Another Issue
Where Deep Child Poverty Comes From
As a follow up to my EITC post yesterday, I want to emphasize that one problem with the EITC is actually present in every single child tax benefit we have. In one form or another, all child tax benefits we have are earnings-related, meaning the lower your earnings, the less you get. This design, which… Continue reading Where Deep Child Poverty Comes From
The Oddities of the EITC and Why We Should Think Twice About Its Further Expansion
Congressman Ro Khanna has adopted the idea of expanding the size of the Earned Income Tax Credit recently and attracted some media attention as a result (Lowrey at Atlantic; Ferenstein at Quartz and at Medium). The idea comes from a Neil Irwin piece at the New York Times, which the CBPP and Tax Policy Center… Continue reading The Oddities of the EITC and Why We Should Think Twice About Its Further Expansion
James Baldwin on the Immiseration of Inequality
If you talk about inequality and poverty in the US for long enough, conservatives and even liberals of a certain recent vintage will invariably raise the point that bottom incomes in the US are higher than many incomes elsewhere in the world. Sure, they say, it may not be that those on the bottom of… Continue reading James Baldwin on the Immiseration of Inequality