Policy Digest: Welfare State Edition
- You may have heard about “inversions,” which have become a hot topic of debate in the wake of Burger King’s acquisition of Tim Hortons. Megan McArdle provides some much-needed context for that debate (although my jaw dropped when I got to her line about “what you owe the government that raised you”). Cato Institute scholar and Debt Dialogues guest Dan Mitchell has more.
- Daniel Payne says “Bring Back the Welfare Stigma.” Brandon Smith says don’t. I say: end the welfare state.
- Social Security is in bad shape, and the response from the left runs from “do nothing” to “make it much worse.” Meanwhile, here are five Social Security myths.
- I’ve written numerous times about the fascinating phenomenon of the Mutual Aid Societies that flourished before the creation of the welfare state. Here’s a nice overview from Greg Scandlen.
- We often hear the economy compared to a pie, which wrongly suggests a zero sum game, where one person’s fortune necessary comes at another person’s expense. Some criticize the metaphor for ignoring that the pie can grow. But as Yaron Brook and I have argued, there is no pie. Keith Hennessey agrees, and argues that the economy is a garden, not a pie.
