A Basic Welfare Framework

Often, it’s said that welfare states are dizzyingly complicated. So many programs! Impossible to rationalize! But this isn’t necessarily true. You can make welfare systems that are bizarrely complicated, but laying out a basic welfare framework doesn’t have to be a byzantine affair. Consider the following four-part framework that captures the vast majority of what… Continue reading A Basic Welfare Framework

If You Want Really Low Poverty, Market Income Is Not Going To Get You There

I’ve been reading the recent EPI report from Elise Gould, Alyssa Davis, and Will Kimball titled “Broad-Based Wage Growth Is A Key Tool In The Fight Against Poverty.” The report shows, as you would expect, that if earners at the bottom had higher market incomes, then poverty would be somewhat lower as well. While there… Continue reading If You Want Really Low Poverty, Market Income Is Not Going To Get You There

Frozen Darkness Is Depressing

Every so often, a major publication publishes an article about how everyone has the Nordic countries wrong and that they aren’t utopias. My favorite example of this is a 2005 article in the New York Times purporting to dispel the myth that Norwegians are rich and wealthy via the author’s anecdotes about such things as… Continue reading Frozen Darkness Is Depressing