Repeat a lie often enough and it will be believed. "Young people are exploited!" "Income mobility is down!" "Poor people are locked into poverty!" Those are samples of popular nonsense peddled today. Leftist economist Thomas Piketty's book "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" has been No. 1 on best-seller lists for weeks (with 400 ... MORE
Never mind the reasons. "President Obama Vows Zero Tolerance on Gender Wage Gap," read one headline. Another read, "Women Still Earned 77 Cents On Men's Dollar In 2012." It's presumed that big, greedy corporations are responsible for what is seen as wage injustice. Before discussing the "unjust" wage differences between men and ... MORE
Friedman and Hayek supported the notion. Switzerland will soon hold a nationwide referendum on granting a guaranteed and unconditional minimum monthly income of $2,800 for each Swiss adult. In America, where Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty just celebrated its 50th anniversary of failing to achieve victory, liberals jumped on the ... MORE
Read all four parts of this essay! Someone summarized Barack Obama in three words — "educated," "smart"
and "ignorant." Unfortunately, those same three words would describe all
too many of the people who come out of our most prestigious colleges
and universities today. President Obama seems completely ... MORE
by Jeffrey Dorfman. Income inequality is dominating the economic news cycle at the moment with multiple stories about rising income inequality, the need to raise the minimum wage, and anecdotal stories designed to make the more fortunate feel sorry for the less so. There are, however, two big problems with this narrative. First, most of the ... MORE
Let's think about fairness and justice. Democrats plan to demagogue income inequality and the wealth gap for political gain in this year's elections. Most of what's said about income inequality is stupid or, at best, ill-informed. Much to their disgrace, economists focusing on measures of income inequality bring little light to the issue. ... MORE
It is not the "defining challenge of our time." Are the rich getting richer?
Yes. Are the poor getting poorer? No. In fact, over the past 35
years most Americans got richer. Has income inequality increased in
the United States? Yes. Does it matter? Well, President Barack
Obama thinks so. In a December speech at the Center for American ... MORE
Repeating a fallacy does not make it true. “Inequality is the defining challenge of our time,” according to President Obama. It’s certainly the topic of the day for Paul Krugman, Joe Stiglitz and a whole raft of liberal pundits. But have you noticed that hardly anyone else is talking about it? When is the last time you heard a shoeshine ... MORE
Do facts matter more than social visions? Depressing news about black students scoring far below white students on various mental tests has become so familiar that people in different parts of the ideological spectrum have long ago developed their different explanations for why this is so. But both may have to do some rethinking, ... MORE
Matthew Feeney on a guaranteed income. The Swiss are set to vote on whether their country should introduce a basic national income of 2,500 Swiss Francs ($2,800) a month for every adult, regardless of their salary or net worth. A date for the vote has yet to be announced. Without the Swiss proposal being attached to drastic welfare reforms ... MORE
Don't try to sell the recovery notion to them. The American middle class, like the American economy in general, is ailing. Labor-force participation has hit a 35-year low. Median household income is lower than it was five years ago. Only the top 5 percent of households have seen their incomes rise under President Obama. Commuters are paying ... MORE
Our president is hardwired to the socialist view. President Barack Obama went to Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., this week to rearticulate his vision for the American economy and to reassure the American people that, yes, he knows what he is doing. The president's prodigious political skills are always on display, even in the most ... MORE
Promoting envy and a sense of grievance. The political left has long claimed the role of protector of "the poor." It is one of their central moral claims to political power. But how valid is this claim? Leaders of the left in many countries have promoted policies that enable the poor to be more comfortable in their poverty. But that raises a ... MORE