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Poor Policy: How Government Harms The Poor
Setting out to illustrate how special-interest groups in the USA advocate policies that benefit themselves but inadvertently hurt the poor, this book shows how this inequity occurs in both product and labour markets. The author also provides an analysis of US welfare policies.
- GenresEconomics
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 25, 2024
AN "UNALIGNED" EVANGELICAL PERSPECTIVE ON POLICIES ABOUT THE POOR
At the time this book was published in 1996, D. Eric Schansberg was a professor of economics at Indiana University-Southeast. He is also the author of 'Turn Neither to the Right Nor to the Left,' 'Inheriting the Promised Land: Lessons in Victorious Christian Living from the Book of Joshua,' etc.
He wrote in the Preface, "This book can be read as an explanation of how political markets function---how special interest groups use the political process to redistribute income from you, the general public, to themselves... this book documents how government policy affects you and explains how it happens."
He observes, "The problems with the poverty rate also explain some seeming anomalies... in 1990, 22,000 poor households owned heated swimming pools or jacuzzis, 38% owned their own homes, 62% owned a car (14% owned two or more cars), and almost half had air conditioning... Why? Again, with the omission of in-kind transfers, assets, life-cycle earnings, the statistic fails to distinguish between those who are under the poverty line and those who are 'living in poverty.'" (Pg. 10)
He states, "President Reagan was pummeled for supposedly cutting social welfare programs. In the early 1980s, with ideology swinging in favor of less government, Reagan was unable to affect substantive change in this policy arena." (Pg. 149)
On a more personal level, he wrote, "as an Evangelical Christian (and an economist), I am eager to identify policies that help and harm the poor independent of what the church teaches about issues concerning the poor. As should be evident by my advocacy of drug legalization and abolishing the minimum wage, my views do not always align with conventional Christian 'wisdom' about what is best for the poor or others." (Pg. 161)
He notes, "Perhaps the working poor are hurt most by welfare policies... The working poor must deal with the temptation of welfare and Medicaid. Welfare policy must change for the working poor, whose efforts are mocked by a system that makes less industrious people better off financially." (Pg. 176)
This book is an interesting, and nontraditional, approach and analysis of these issues.
At the time this book was published in 1996, D. Eric Schansberg was a professor of economics at Indiana University-Southeast. He is also the author of 'Turn Neither to the Right Nor to the Left,' 'Inheriting the Promised Land: Lessons in Victorious Christian Living from the Book of Joshua,' etc.
He wrote in the Preface, "This book can be read as an explanation of how political markets function---how special interest groups use the political process to redistribute income from you, the general public, to themselves... this book documents how government policy affects you and explains how it happens."
He observes, "The problems with the poverty rate also explain some seeming anomalies... in 1990, 22,000 poor households owned heated swimming pools or jacuzzis, 38% owned their own homes, 62% owned a car (14% owned two or more cars), and almost half had air conditioning... Why? Again, with the omission of in-kind transfers, assets, life-cycle earnings, the statistic fails to distinguish between those who are under the poverty line and those who are 'living in poverty.'" (Pg. 10)
He states, "President Reagan was pummeled for supposedly cutting social welfare programs. In the early 1980s, with ideology swinging in favor of less government, Reagan was unable to affect substantive change in this policy arena." (Pg. 149)
On a more personal level, he wrote, "as an Evangelical Christian (and an economist), I am eager to identify policies that help and harm the poor independent of what the church teaches about issues concerning the poor. As should be evident by my advocacy of drug legalization and abolishing the minimum wage, my views do not always align with conventional Christian 'wisdom' about what is best for the poor or others." (Pg. 161)
He notes, "Perhaps the working poor are hurt most by welfare policies... The working poor must deal with the temptation of welfare and Medicaid. Welfare policy must change for the working poor, whose efforts are mocked by a system that makes less industrious people better off financially." (Pg. 176)
This book is an interesting, and nontraditional, approach and analysis of these issues.
May 31, 2012
Engagingly written and well-researched.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews