Monday, June 13, 2016

Welfare: Still Rotten

Some popularizers of recent studies claim welfare "doesn't make people lazy," except the studies involved small grants to poor people in poor countries. That's not Western style welfare. That's more like a small lottery winning.

Western style welfare does decrease hours worked.

Studies attempting to defend welfare in the West run into the problem of study participants being monitored and badgered, even when the studies do not engage in outright fraud.

The larger the free riding population, the greater the incentives become for others to give up and join the free riding.

In addition to TANF, SNAP, and other ordinary welfare programs, tax entitlements cost over $1.1 trillion per year. The uncounted direct and opportunity costs of monopolies, oligopolies, Wall Street, and other rent seeking entities are even larger.

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