What does U.S. gun ownership really look like? Load up with #PollPosition’s @Johnnydontlike: http://t.co/R8ZtDiABfM pic.twitter.com/fn5EpM75U7
— Townhall Media (@TownhallMedia) March 25, 2015
Gun control advocates in the USA will have to rethink their messaging
13 Apr 2015 1 Comment
in economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, politics - USA Tags: gun control
Hillary’s presidential run is Directors’ law personified
13 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, politics - USA, Public Choice
The 2008 US presidential campaign was the best soapie on TV. The 2016 season of that show looks even better.
Back in 2008, Hillary Clinton’s campaign rhetoric intrigued me. It was all about the middle-class and helping the middle class. No working part class warriors today in the main strain of the Democratic Party. The 2016 campaign is the same.
The median voter is a middle-class voter. The median voter is the swinging voter or the independent voter in American terminology. All parties go after this voter if they want to win elections.
Director’s Law of public expenditure is that public expenditure is used primary for the benefit of the middle class, and is financed with taxes which are borne in considera class war rhetoric in a campaign announcement is mainly for the benefit of the left of the party to discourage primary runs by Sen Warren, in particular ble part by the poor and the rich because the median voter comes from the middle-class.
Presidential primary and general election debates in 2016 will be about how things were getting harder for the middle-class and the Republican or Democratic candidate pitching for votes will stand up for the middle-class better than their competition in the presidential primary or general election.
Morning radio in New Zealand, the state owned broadcaster, interviewed one of their political contacts about Hillary’s announcement. His suggestions were her were go left, young Hillary, go left. He wanted her to imitate the policies of the left-wing Democratic Party potential candidate Senator Warren and significantly increase the minimum wage.
At no time did our intrepid reporter on 9 to Noon ask whether this go left political strategy would increase the chances of Hillary winning or have any relevance under a Republican-controlled Senate and House of Representatives or help the Democratic Party win back the House.
Republican-control of Congress will be a strong incentive to Hillary to go to the centre if she wants to have any chance of implementing any of her policies. The class war rhetoric in her campaign announcement is mainly to neutralise the chances of Senator Warren contesting the primaries. Oddly enough, the priorities of Senator Warren also focus on the concerns of the middle-class voters such as about student loans rather than paying the rent and buying groceries.
The NZ Greens want to introduce food stamps, but only for part of the year?!
12 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in income redistribution, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, Public Choice Tags: expressive voting, food stamps, Left-wing hypocrisy, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, school breakfast programs, soup kitchens, welfare reform, welfare state
The welfare state has a long history of providing some of its support to the needy in kind rather than in cash. This can range from soup kitchens to public housing as well as food stamps.
In the USA, food stamps provide provide food-purchasing assistance for low- and no-income people living. Food stamps can only be exchanged for food.
Instead of requiring the poor and needy to attend a soup kitchen, they can be given vouchers to buy food at supermarkets and take it home and cook at themselves. These days some sort of debit card system can be used where purchases are restricted to food at supermarkets and other participating retailers.
A close parallel with food stamps, properly understood, is free school breakfast programs. The welfare state is providing in-kind support to hungry children. This is done at school, to ensure that the children eat the meals.
Rather than rely on their parents to spend their welfare benefits and income support on food for their children, the food is given directly to the children when they arrive at school in the morning. In New Zealand, these free school breakfast programs are restricted to schools in low income areas.
There is a Feed the Kids Bill in Parliament sponsored by the Green Party. I have frequently criticised this proposal as it doesn’t provide breakfast to needy children at the weekends and school holidays. They are left to go hungry. Abandoned by their so called social justice champions through lack of imagination and self-awareness.
If children are showing up at school without their breakfast on a regular basis, their parents should reported that the child protection authorities for intervention. This can start with budget advice and assistance with applying for any additional and emergency financial support they are eligible for from Work and Income New Zealand.
Soup kitchens not only provides people with food, it provides various other assistance to help people to get back on their feet.
If you were proposing a food stamps program in New Zealand because children are going hungry, you’ll be laughed at if you suggested it should only apply the part of the year such as during the school term.
That is precisely what the Greens are doing. The only difference is how they are organised the provision of in-kind support to children, this case, food. Instead of their parents collecting a debit card that can only be used to buy food, the food is eaten by their children at school.
New Zealand, Australian and US real housing price index, 1975–2014, 2005 base
12 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in business cycles, global financial crisis (GFC), great recession, macroeconomics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, urban economics Tags: GFC, housing prices, land supply, zoning
The housing spikes in Australia and New Zealand preceded the global financial crisis, starting in about 1999, and were largely unaffected by the GFC. Housing prices in the USA were pretty calm except in the lead up to the GFC, and took a dive with the onset of the global financial crisis and great recession.
Source: Dallas Fed; Housing prices deflated by personal consumption expenditure (PCE) deflator.
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America’s poor are richer than Europe’s nonpoor
12 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
What are the Democrat – Republican part as in spreads on the major issues
12 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
A Guaranteed Minimum Income for New Zealand? The Treasury costings
12 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in income redistribution, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, welfare reform
The Treasury modelled a Guaranteed Minimum income (GMI) at the request of the Welfare Working Group in 2010. A GMI paying $300 per week – the mean benefit income among those on benefits – would cost $44.5 billion (model 1) or $52.6 billion if we extended it to super annuitants as a replacement for NZ Superannuation or old age pension (model 2). The former could be covered by a flat personal income tax rate of 45.4%; the latter, 48.6%.
Full fiscal neutrality would require tax rates of 50.6% and 54.4% – the lower tax rates would be just enough to cover the transfers, but income tax revenues are currently also used to fund more than just transfers.
If we recognize that most parents are beneficiaries via Working for Families and compensate them for their loss with a $86 per child per week payment (model 3), we get a $57.1 billion fiscal cost and a personal tax rate of 50% (or 55.7% for fiscal neutrality).
Treasury noted that many beneficiaries (including the disabled, carers and sole parents) currently receive more than $300 per week and would be made financially worse off under a GMI scheme.
Treasury also warned about potential adverse labour supply responses to the necessary higher personal income tax rates. The large gap between company and personal tax rates would increase IRD’s enforcement costs.
In 1987, Finance Minister Roger Douglas announced a Guaranteed Minimum Family Income Scheme to accompany a new 22% flat income tax. The idea did not go ahead.
Richard Nixon also proposed a guaranteed minimum family income plan in 1969 to replace the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AIDC) scheme at the behest of future Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. This was based on the negative income tax proposals of Milton Friedman and George Stigler. Nixon’s plan passed the House but not the Senate after 3 years of infighting.
The final outcome was the earned income tax credit (EITC) in 1975 that was expanded significantly in the 1990s to become the largest single federal income transfer programme. One attraction of the EITC is that because its benefits rise positively with earnings up to the phase-out point, so it can have a positive rather than negative effect on work incentives for workers on a low wage.
Low incomes don’t matter much to cell phone and smart phone access for teens
11 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
When do people announce they are running for president?
10 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - USA Tags: 2016 presidential election
Australia has the most targeted welfare state
10 Apr 2015 2 Comments
in politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: welfare state
In Mexico, most cash-based public social benefits go to households in the highest income quintile, per OECD. http://t.co/xykkPkDVZs—
Catherine Rampell (@crampell) November 24, 2014
The Civil War ends on this day 150 years ago
10 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - USA Tags: American Civil War
Fracking is expanding rapidly in the USA, much to the disappointment of the peak oil crowd
09 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, politics - USA Tags: fracking, peak oil
"Hydraulic fracturing has unleashed vast new quantities of crude oil and natural gas." on.wsj.com/19Gj92Y http://t.co/a2hzPq0i7e—
I Love Fossil Fuels (@ILoveFossilFuel) April 08, 2015
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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