Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
20 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, economic growth, economic history, growth miracles, income redistribution, labour economics, liberalism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, technological progress Tags: regressive left, The Great Enrichment
As I wrote nine years ago, Oxfam is a pathetic organization. Originally created to help the poor, it has been captured by activists who peddle class warfare. But they play that role in an incredibly sloppy fashion. In all the debates I’ve been part of over the years, no left-leaning academic has been willing to […]
Part II: Oxfam Is a Leftist Joke, not a Real Charity
18 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic growth, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, poverty and inequality Tags: creative destruction, pessimist bias
There is a new and optimistic paper by Lukas Althoff and Hugo Reichardt: Artificial intelligence is changing which tasks workers do and how they do them. Predicting its labor market consequences requires understanding how technical change affects workers’ productivity across tasks, how workers adapt by changing occupations and acquiring new skills, and how wages adjust…
AI, labor markets, and wages
09 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, history of economic thought, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, libertarianism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, family poverty
Last month, Econoboi hosted a debate on poverty between myself and Matt Bruenig. Here are my reflections on that debate.I was pleasantly surprised by Bruenig’s openness to most of my proposed supply-side reforms. He wasn’t just pro-immigration, but also pro-deregulation of housing and pro-nuclear. He was happy to admit that these policies aren’t just good…
Reflections on the Caplan-Bruenig Poverty Debate
03 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, labour economics, poverty and inequality
It’s become a nearly standard claim that economics inequality makes people feel worse-off, or perhaps even leads to mental illness. However, Nicolas Sommet, Adrien A. Fillon, Ocyna Rudmann, Alfredo Rossi Saldanha Cunha and Annahita Ehsan did what is called a “meta-analysis” of the available studies–that is, they went back and looked at the underlying data, methods, and findings…
Economic Inequality Does Not Cause Lower Subjective Ratings of Well-Being
29 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, labour economics, labour supply, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: Canada
Since 2015, Canada has tripled its Indigenous spending – paying more than on national defense. Over those same years, Indigenous people have suffered a catastrophic collapse in health and well-being: on average almost a full decade of lost life expectancy. That is from David Frum. The post Canada fact of the day appeared first on…
Canada fact of the day
24 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, history of economic thought, income redistribution, job search and matching, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, minimum wage, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: living wage
08 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, labour economics, labour supply, poverty and inequality
That is my latest piece for The Free Press, focusing on the claims of Michael W. Green. Excerpt: Most of all, there is a major conceptual error in Green’s focus on high prices. To the extent that prices are high, it is not because our supply chains have been destroyed by earthquakes or nuclear bombs. […]
The myth of the $140,000 poverty line
07 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, history of economic thought, labour economics, labour supply, poverty and inequality
A quarter century ago, economist Price Fishback published “Operations of ‘Unfettered’ Labor Markets: Exit and Voice in American Labor Markets at the Turn of the Century” 1,762 more words
Unfettered: Fishback 25 Years Later
06 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: economics of immigration, Japan
In Japan, you see native-born East Asians doing menial jobs everywhere you look. You see Japanese janitors, Japanese street-sweepers, Japanese convenience store workers, Japanese crossing guards, Japanese taxi drivers, and Japanese laborers on construction sites. 904 more words
Human Capital Hara-Kiri
05 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, history of economic thought, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, Milton Friedman, occupational choice, poverty and inequality, unemployment, welfare reform
Nine years ago, I critically analyzed the Cohen-Friedman debate on means-testing Social Security. Only recently, though, did I find the original footage from 1971. As far as I know, this is the first time that any prominent social scientist made the “A program only for the poor will always be a poor program” argument that…
The Great Means-Testing Debate
04 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, family poverty, social insurance
Tomorrow at 2 PM ET, I’ll be debating “What is the best policy response to poverty?” versus Matt Bruenig. Venue: Econoboi channel P.S. You might recall that… 9 more words
My Econoboi Poverty Debate vs. Matt Bruenig
03 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, history of economic thought, labour economics, labour supply, poverty and inequality
Tweet… is from page 181 of the late UCLA economist William Allen’s superb 1989 collection of the transcripts of his radio addresses, The Midnight Economist; specifically, it’s from Allen’s April 1985 address “Employment and Wages, Competition and Fairness”: The more valuable the worker, the higher the bid for his services. The high wage offer reflects…
Quotation of the Day…
01 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, labour economics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, family poverty
The US economy is the largest in the world, and at least among the large-population countries of the world (setting aside smaller economies strongly influenced by international capital flows like Monaco, Cayman Islands, and Ireland or by oil resources), it also has the highest per capita GDP. But at the same time, according to the…
US Poverty and Policy
08 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality
This week, my ECONS102 class covered inequality, and social security. Which is timely, because I have been meaning to blog about this Treasury Analytical Note from 2024, by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, for some time. Wright and Nguyen look at the distributional impact of taxes, transfers, and government spending (on healthcare and education).Importantly, they distinguish…
The impact of taxes and transfers on inequality in New Zealand
20 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, human capital, poverty and inequality
An excellent speech by the President of the University of Austin on inequality: But on the heels of America’s quarter-millennium since the Declaration of Independence, I want to do something a bit unfashionable: I want to defend inequality. Of course, all men are created equal. But all men are not the same. We have unequal…
In defence of inequality
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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