Category: Poverty
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Welfare is Key to Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth
The Atlantic: Welfare Makes America More Entrepreneurial A common perspective among political conservatives, especially of the libertarian and Tea Party varieties, is that welfare is a drag on economic growth and a disincentive to initiative. Paul Ryan wants a safety net and not a safety hammock. Some libertarians don’t even want the net. It would…
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Stop Trying to Save the World (Good Intentions Are Not Enough!)
New Republic: Stop Trying to Save the World: Big ideas are destroying international development, Michael Hobbes One of the first classes I took in the economic development program at Eastern University was a class where we spent the entire semester studying the wide variety of economic development models that had been tried. Few worked. The…
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Globalization and Inequality: Two Complex Decades in One Simple Graph
Pew Research Center: Chart of the Week: How two decades of globalization have changed the world (Source: Milanovic, B., Lead Economist, World Bank Research Department, Global income inequality by the numbers. Annotations by James Plunkett.) I have seen the unannotated version of this graph several times, but the annotations really make things clear. The graph…
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Why Rich People Don’t Care About You
Real Clear Science – Newton Blog: Why Rich People Don't Care About You Examine the income ladder of the United States, and you'll soon stumble upon a surprising fact: Rich people donate a smaller portion of their income to charity than poor people. In 2011, people in the bottom 20% donated 3.2 percent of their…
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Why I Won’t Shut Up About Positive Changes in The World
Most people are exceptionally illiterate about the trajectory of demographic and economic changes in the world, believing the world is decaying. That leads many to disengage in hopelessness. Globalization combined with investment in human capital and infrastructure has put extreme poverty in rapid retreat. The global poor are not getting poorer. The world is getting…
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GDP Growing Fastest in Poor Countries
The world's poorest regions have been growing the fastest for at least twenty years. The Economist forecasts world GDP to be 2.9%, Asia and Australasia (less Australia) at 5.7%, and Sub-Saharan Africa at 4.5%. These rates indicate a considerable slowing of growth from recent years. The US forecast is 3.2%. This is more evidence that…
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Low-income communities are not needy — they have assets
Faith and Leadership Blog: John McKnight: Low-income communities are not needy — they have assets Most people and institutions that want to serve poor communities are focused on what the residents lack. “What are the needs?” is often the first question asked. John McKnight says that approach has it backward. “I knew from being a…
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Why employees earn more at big-box chains than mom-and-pop shops (and other observations)
PBS News Hour has a piece Why employees earn more at big-box chains than mom-and-pop shops. Contrary to widespread belief, big-box stores and chains have increased wages in the retail sector as they have spread, according to “Do Large Modern Retailers Pay Premium Wages?” (NBER Working Paper No. 20313). Retail wages rise markedly with the…
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Chronic Hunger Falling, But One in Nine People Still Affected
World Watch: Chronic Hunger Falling, But One in Nine People Still Affected Although the proportion of people experiencing chronic hunger is decreasing globally, one in nine individuals still does not get enough to eat. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 805 million people were living with undernourishment (chronic hunger) in 2012–14, down 209…