The Undeserving Rich

The Undeserving Rich

conservatives seem fixated on the notion that poverty is basically the result of character problems among the poor. This may once have had a grain of truth to it, but for the past three decades and more the main obstacle facing the poor has been the lack of jobs paying decent wages. But the myth of the undeserving poor persists, and so does a counterpart myth, that of the deserving rich.

I’m waiting on the right wing responses to this. I’m guessing the same old crap about taxation and gubmint.

Derp Pirate Roberts

Derp Pirate Roberts

Mr. Green had “died of asphyxiation/heart rupture” while being tortured, nob explained. Dread Pirate Roberts replied that he found the images disturbing, but that he did not have any other choice.
“I just wish more people had some integrity,” D.P.R. wrote.

DPR was acting exactly how critics of far-right libertarians suggest people in his position would act.

What Happens When the Poor Receive a Stipend?

What Happens When the Poor Receive a Stipend?

What precisely did the income change? Ongoing interviews with both parents and children suggested one variable in particular. The money, which amounted to between one-third and one-quarter of poor families’ income at one point, seemed to improve parenting quality.

…

That “helps parents be better parents,” she said.

Turns out that giving poor people money helps then escape poverty.

Enemies of the Poor

Enemies of the Poor

our patchwork, uncoordinated system of antipoverty programs does have the effect of penalizing efforts by lower-income households to improve their position: the more they earn, the fewer benefits they can collect. In effect, these households face very high marginal tax rates. A large fraction, in some cases 80 cents or more, of each additional dollar they earn is clawed back by the government.The question is what we could do to reduce these high effective tax rates.

That’s Friedman’s argument for a negative income tax.

Mankiw makes an argument against raising the minimum wage

Mankiw makes an argument against raising the minimum wage

Mankiw makes an argument against raising the minimum wage.

My two big issues with this is that the EITC acts as a de-facto subsidy to those who hire low wage workers. This subsidy would, (using Mankiw’s logic) dis-incentivize productivity gains via automation and advantage industries that are built around low-wage, low skill work.

So, why should the income tax system be used to subsidy low-wage, low-skill, low productivity workers and the industries that require them rather than advantage higher-skill, higher-wage higher productivity work?

What happens when you don’t get vaccinated

What happens when you don’t get vaccinated

My two vaccinated children, on the other hand, have rarely been ill, have had antibiotics maybe twice in their lives, if that. Not like their mum. I got so many illnesses requiring treatment with antibiotics that I developed a resistance to them, which led me to be hospitalized with penicillin-resistant quinsy at age 21 – you know, that old-fashioned disease that supposedly killed Queen Elizabeth I and that was almost wiped out through use of antibiotics.

I realize that this is just one person, and should not be treated as a anything more than anecdote, but this is not what the anti-vac people say happens to an immune system with and without vaccines. They insist that people who are not vaccinated will develop a healthy immune system via some natural process. Modern medicine disagrees, and so does her experience. 

4 states confirm water pollution from drilling

4 states confirm water pollution from drilling

Over the past 10 years, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has led to a boom in oil and natural gas production around the nation. It has reduced imports and led to hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue for companies and landowners, but also created pollution fears.

Its called an externality. But I’m sure the right will insist that this problem can only be solved by tax cuts and deregulation.