Why libertarianism is a marginal idea and not a universal value | Steven Pinker
10 Mar 2018 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, economic history, fiscal policy, growth disasters, growth miracles, income redistribution, Public Choice, public economics Tags: Director's Law, growth of government, Steven Pinker, Wagner's Law
Is Growth of Government Inevitable? | Sam Peltzman
12 Oct 2017 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics, Sam Peltzman Tags: Director's Law, growth of government
Just exactly how big is @grantrobertson1’s great big new tax?
20 Mar 2016 1 Comment
in labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: Director's Law, universal basic income
Gareth Morgan’s universal basic income, by his own calculations, make well-to-do people better off and the poor and old age pensioners worse off at the cost of $12 billion tax rise. The Labour Party has now adopted this policy as worth considering.
Source: Gareth Morgan Presentation Slide 20 of 27 | Big Kahuna Book.
Source: Gareth Morgan Presentation Slide 20 of 27 | Big Kahuna Book.
Directors’ Law vindicated again – the American middle class think there are undervalued
06 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
Director’s Law in New Zealand?
14 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, income redistribution, labour economics, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics Tags: child poverty, Director's Law, family poverty, family tax credits, welfare state
One group with negative net tax liability is low- to middle-income households with dependent children. For example, single-earner families with two children can earn up to around $60,000 pa before they pay any net tax.
Around half of all households with children receive more in welfare benefits and tax credits than they pay in income tax.
Liberal voting cities markets have higher income inequality and worse affordability
12 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: Director's Law, expressive boating, green rent seeking, housing affordability, land supply, land use planning, Left-wing hypocrisy, NIMBYs, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, zoning
All homeowners have an incentive to stop new housing because if developers build too many homes, prices fall, and housing is many families’ main asset. But in cities with many Democrats and Green Party members, environmental concerns might also be a factor. The movement might be too eager to preserve the past.
via Why Middle-Class Americans Can’t Afford to Live in Liberal Cities – The Atlantic.
The living wage as an application of Director’s Law
30 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in income redistribution, labour economics, minimum wage, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, population economics, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: British politics, Director's Law, expressive voting, living wage, rational ignorance, rational irrationality
OBR's idea of who will benefit from National Living Wage http://t.co/ztxfW906Gg—
James Bartholomew (@JGBartholomew) July 08, 2015
The Rahn curve explained
23 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, income redistribution, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice, public economics Tags: Director's Law, growth of government, laffer curve, optimal tax theory, Rahn curve, size of government
Has NZ child poverty doubled as @MaxRashbrooke said?
09 Jul 2015 1 Comment
in applied welfare economics, economic history, economics of regulation, labour economics, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, property rights Tags: Auckland urban limit, child poverty, Director's Law, expressive voting, family poverty, family tax credits, in-work tax credits, land use planning, median voter theorm, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, RMA, top 1%, working for families
Lindsay Mitchell put me onto a quote by veteran grumbler Max Rashbrooke that the child poverty rate doubled in New Zealand:
In a system where income goes disproportionately to the already well-off, ordinary workers are missing out on the rewards of their efforts, to the tune of billions of dollars a year. Welfare benefits, cut by a quarter in 1991 and increased just 8 per cent in the last budget, are far too low to meet people’s basic needs.
The result is a doubling of child poverty and the return of childhood diseases unknown in most developed countries – a national embarrassment, as one researcher described it.
Poverty, income and inequality data is collected in loving detail by Brian Perry every year for the Ministry of Social Development.
Figure 1: % child poverty in New Zealand (before and after housing costs), 60% 1998 median constant value, 1982 – 2013
Source: Bryan Perry, Household incomes in New Zealand: Trends in indicators of inequality and hardship 1982 to 2013. Ministry of Social Development (July 2014), Tables F.6 and F.7.
The only thing noticeable in the downward trend in child poverty in New Zealand since its doubling with the sharp recession in 1990 with double-digit unemployment rates is child poverty stop falling shortly after in-work family tax credits were introduced in the form of Working for Families in 2005.
New QV figures show Auckland house prices are up a massive 16.1% on last year, now estimated to reach $1m by Aug '16. http://t.co/DwAU79ozCy—
New Zealand Labour (@nzlabour) June 09, 2015
There was a break in trend in the long decline in child poverty as soon as in-work family tax credits were introduced in New Zealand. I’m sure this is a coincidence because, as Brian Perry said when discussing the introduction of Working for Families in 2005:
The 2004 to 2007 period was the only one in the 25 years to 2007 in which the incomes of low- to middle-income households grew more quickly than those of households above the median.
The real killer in New Zealand in terms of poverty and inequality are housing costs. Housing costs are wholly under the control of government through its control of the supply of land, which is restricted at the behest of the parties of the left.
Figure 2: real equivalised household incomes (before and after housing costs): changes at the top of lowest income decile, New Zealand, 1982 to 2013
Source: Bryan Perry, Household incomes in New Zealand: Trends in indicators of inequality and hardship 1982 to 2013. Ministry of Social Development (July 2014), tables D.2 and D.4.
Figure 2 shows that real equivalised household income after housing costs has not grown and in fact has fallen for the bottom 10% of the income distribution in New Zealand.
It is the left-wing parties who oppose measures to reduce housing costs and and increase the supply of land through reforms to the Resource Management Act and the relaxation of the Auckland metropolitan urban limit.
Labour and the Greens are in effect keeping the poor poor to win middle-class votes.
Figure 3: real equivalised household incomes (before and after housing costs): changes at the top of the top, middle and lowest lowest income deciles, New Zealand, 1982 to 2013
Source: Bryan Perry, Household incomes in New Zealand: Trends in indicators of inequality and hardship 1982 to 2013. Ministry of Social Development (July 2014), tables D.2 in D.4.
Figure 3 shows that those in the middle and higher deciles, a political territory rich in swinging voters, are still doing well after housing costs. The parties of the left are collaborating with a middle-class home owning voter while betraying the working class and its aspirations from home ownership and quite simply affordable housing costs when they rent.
The increases for all groups may be understated by the inability of living standards measures to adequately account for new goods, product upgrades and rising life expectancies.
A blow to Director’s Law?
03 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, income redistribution, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: British economy, British politics, Director's Law, expressive voting, growth of government, median voter theorem, size of government
No, most U.K. homes do not get more in benefits than they pay in tax ow.ly/3y0nEo http://t.co/LaXvGa8ro2—
Bloomberg VisualData (@BBGVisualData) July 02, 2015
…the poorest 30 percent of households receive significantly more in cash benefits than they pay in tax. The next 10 percent receive on average £596 pounds a year more in cash benefits than they pay in tax, and the top 60 percent all pay more in tax than they get back in cash benefits.
New data from the ONS show the huge growth in state dependency under New Labour. Analysis at cps.org.uk/files/factshee… http://t.co/OLjRoxt3eg—
CPS Think Tank (@CPSThinkTank) June 29, 2015
Director’s Law in action in the 1970s
26 May 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: Director's Law, growth of government
Long live the Slopegraph. Long live Edward Tufte. tinyurl.com/naeh7rc http://t.co/C8Lgnupxz9—
Amity Shlaes (@AmityShlaes) May 16, 2015
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