Mar 18

Believe it or Not, Welfare Spending Harms the Poor

Roger Roots, J.D., Ph.D.

Roger Roots, J.D., Ph.D.

From Roger I. Roots, “When Laws Backfire: Unintended Consequences of Public Policy,” American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 47 No. 11, July 2004, page 1382:

The unintended costs of welfare spending have rarely been compiled by academics. But research has shown that a substantial number of welfare recipients simply live in poverty by choice because of the attractiveness of welfare programs. During the mid-1980s, at least 5.7 million people—roughly one sixth of the population in poverty—were living in poverty by choice due to welfare (Goodman 1987). Each additional $1 million in welfare spending increased the poverty population by 250,000 people (Goodman 1987). Controlled experiments by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Serviced found that compared with similarly situated families not on welfare, families drawing welfare payments changed their behavior substantially.

The number of hours worked by husbands dropped 9 percent; by wives, 20 percent; by young male adults, an incredible 43 percent. The length of unemployment among husbands increased 27 percent; among wives it increased 42 percent, and for single female household heads it increased 60 percent. Divorce increased 36 percent among whites and 42 percent among blacks. (Goodman, 1987, p. 37).

Mar 18

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF PUBLIC POLICY

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In the words of the immortal Harry Browne, “Each government program carries within it the seeds of future programs that will be ‘needed’ to clean up the mess the first program creates.” (Why Government Doesn’t Work, 1995, p 17). Herbert Spencer remarked in 1850 that there was scarcely a bill introduced in the British Parliament that was not titled “An Act to Amend an Act,” the “Whereas’s” of which always heralded “on account of the miscarriage of previous legislation.” (Social Statics, 1850, p. 12).

“To mitigate distress [of the poor],” wrote Spencer, “the English people have sanctioned upward of one hundred acts in Parliament . . . each of them arising out of the failure or incompleteness of previous legislation. . . . What is the statute book but a record of such unhappy guesses?” (1850: . 11).

Mar 18

Another town eliminates police force, finds that crime drops

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The town of New Carlisle, Ohio–just outside Dayton–has eliminated its police force and cut its funding for county sheriffs deputies substantially. Just as with other towns who have done the same, crime has dropped.

Mar 17

Milton Friedman on Social Security:

Milton Friedman

The U.S. Social Security program taxes most heavily on persons with low incomes, does not provide a fair return, and causes a massive transfer from the less well off to the better off. According to Milton and Rose Friedman, “the poor tend to pay [Social Security] taxes for more years and receive benefits for fewer years than the rich—all in the name of helping the poor!” (Free to Choose (1979 p. 97)). If the same program were implemented by a business in the private sector, it would be considered a criminal offense.

Mar 17

BRITISH MINIMUM WAGE ACT OF 1773 DROVE THE BRITISH TEXTILE INDUSTRY OVERSEAS AND DROVE COUNTLESS BRITS INTO POVERTY

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Herbert Spencer, one of the founders of sociology, pointed out in 1850 that the British Minimum Wage Act of 1773—passed due to pressure from English weavers who believed the law would help lift textile workers out of poverty—decimated the British textile industry only 20 years later. By 1793, “some four thousand looms would be brought to a stand in consequence of the trade going elsewhere.” Few if any of the unemployed weavers recognized that the minimum-wage legislation they so enthusiastically advocated just 20 years earlier was the cause of their impoverishment.

Herbert Spencer, Social Statics (1850), page 11.

Mar 17

Government Supported MSNBC Network Continues to Lose Viewers

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It was recently reported that MSNBC’s government-cheerleading show “The Rachel Maddow Show” is now down to fewer than 100,000 worldwide viewers in the coveted 25-54 age range.

This news comes on the heels of disclosures by former NBC Senior Reporter Lisa Myers that NBC “news” producers worked hard to scuttle and suppress news stories showing that Obamacare was predicted to cause numerous Americans to lose their insurance.

It was revealed in 2010 that MSNBC {and the other “NBC”s} were secret recipients of government TARP bailout money in 2008, through their parent corporation, General Electric.

Mar 16

NASA now claims that California has only one year of water left

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We all know government agencies are in the habit of scaring people into giving government more power. Now we read in Newsweek that NASA is now claiming that Californians will be out of water within one year.

Even if true, this NASA claim should be seen as an opportunity to private-sector entrepreneurs. Instead it will likely be repeated by climate alarmist in their incessant pleas for ever-more socialism.

Mar 16

Al Gore: Those Who Disagree With Government on Climate Change Must Be Punished By the Government

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Former vice president Al Gore spoke to a crowd at Austin’s “South-By-Southwest” Convention (“SXSW”) and told an audience on March 13, 2015 that the federal government should “punish climate-change deniers,” and that “politicians should pay a price for rejecting ‘accepted science.’”

No doubt Galileo is looking down on America from above and shaking his head.

Mar 15

Even as Policymakers Add Burdens to Car Travel, Private-Sector Innovators Are Perfecting Driverless Cars

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In the past 50 years, policymakers have saddled car drivers with an immense array of rules and regulations designed to turn drivers into virtual slaves. Licenses, taxes, fees, government inspections, registrations of all kinds, traffic cops pulling drivers over at gunpoint to issue citations for minor infractions.

Upon being pulled over at gunpoint, drivers are frequently subjected to yelling, intrusive and embarrassing inquiries. Cops in some jurisdictions have been caught subjecting car travelers to body-cavity searches without warrant. On Friday and Saturday evenings–in most communities–cops menace the roadways, constantly harassing drivers and seeking to identify drivers who have had a few drinks.

But technology developed by innovators in the private sector will soon render the government’s obsession with controlling car travel as antiquated as the buggy whip. The Associated Press is reporting that innovators have perfected driverless cars to such an extent that they are preparing a 3,500-mile, cross-country trip by autonomous car.

Already there are multiple driverless cars on the roads in Michigan and California, and these cars have yet to be issued a single traffic ticket.

Autonomous cars will provide a safer means of personal transportation than a human can provide. A completely-drunk individual will soon be able to pour himself into an autonomous car and tell the car to take him home. AND THE CAR WILL DRIVE THE INEBRIATED PASSENGER HOME MORE SAFELY THAN THAT PERSON COULD DRIVE HIMSELF IF HE WERE COMPLETELY SOBER.

We must all work to keep the grubby, bloodstained hands of the state off of this new technology.

Mar 14

Seattle City Council Enacts $15 Minimum Wage in 2014, By 2015, Restaurants Respond With “higher menu prices, cheaper, lower-quality ingredients, reduced opening times, and cutting work hours and firing workers”

government, law enforcement, criminals

The Seattle minimum-wage hike will go into effect incrementally over the next several years. Observers are predicting that numerous businesses will shut their doors.

Stay tuned!

Here is the link.