Child poverty increasing in Canada since 2020

Statistics Canada figures show that the percentage of Canadian children living in poverty has increased from 2020 to 2022 (the latest year for which statistics are available).

After years of decline, child poverty in Canada is rising swiftly: report | CBC News | Peter Zimonjic:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reading to children in 2019.

November 19, 2024  "Child poverty is rising swiftly in Canada ... says a new report from Campaign 2000. The anti-poverty group's annual report card on child and family poverty in Canada found that there are now 1.4 million children living in poverty across the country, with another 360,000 children falling into poverty over the last two years....

"Campaign 2000 has been issuing its annual report card on poverty since 1991. This year's report looks at the change from 2021 to 2022 and concludes that during that time, 'child poverty increased in every province and territory.'

"'The sharp increase in national child poverty rates from 2020 to 2021 was the first in 10 years and appears to signal a reversal in the downward trend that began in 2015,' the report said. 'Most alarming was the 2.5 percentage point jump from 2021 to 2022, the largest annual increase in child poverty [since 2000]. Federal strategies for poverty reduction are failing children, families and all of society....'

"Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government introduced the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) in its first budget. The CCB, which restructured several payments and tax credits into one benefit, came with a promise that nine out of 10 families would be better off.... 

"According to the Statistics Canada data used by Campaign 2000, 20.9 per cent of children under the age of 18 were living in poverty in Canada when the Liberals came to power. Over the next five years, that percentage gradually reduced — first to 19.6 per cent in 2016, then to 18.6 per cent in 2017.... The child poverty rate then dropped significantly to 13.5 per cent in 2020, when the federal government rolled out its pandemic support program. 

"But since pandemic benefits stopped flowing and inflation started rising, poverty among children and families has been on the rise, first to 15.6 per cent in 2021 and then to 18.1 per cent in 2022.... While that rate is still almost three percentage points lower than it was when the Liberals came to power, Campaign 2000 is concerned that the rate is now trending upward again.

"The anti-poverty group's report card found that in nine of 13 provinces and territories, the number of children under the age of 18 living in poverty was higher than the national average of 18.1 per cent. The percentage was lower than that average in Quebec, B.C., P.E.I. and Yukon.... 

"Nunavut had the highest child poverty rate in the country at 41.8 per cent, followed closely by Manitoba at 27.1 per cent and Saskatchewan at 26.7 per cent. Yukon and Quebec had the lowest child poverty rates in the country at 12 per cent each, followed by  B.C. at 16.7 per cent and P.E.I. at 16.8 per cent."

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/campaign-2000-national-report-card-child-poverty-1.7387176

400K Canadians fell into poverty since 2020

Canada's Department of Social Development estimates that 4 million Canadians are living in poverty, an increase of 400,000 since 2020.

Feds admit cost of living flattened poverty progress | Western Standard | Jen Hodgson:

15 June 15, 2024 - "A report from the Department of Social Development shows the cost of living has overtaken years of progress in lowering poverty rates, per Blacklock’s Reporter. 

Courtesy Dimensions of Poverty Hub

"The department counted a half million Canadians who fell into poverty due to inflation in a December 11 briefing report. 'Future increases in the rate of poverty could stall progress towards reaching the 2030 poverty reduction target of a 50% reduction in poverty versus 2015 levels,' said the federal report. 

"The department estimates 9.9% of Canadians, approximately four million people, live in poverty compared to 6.4% in 2020. That works out to  'approximately 400,000 more Canadians,' the report said. 'High inflation coupled with lagging household incomes has led to affordability pressures among many households.'

"The National Advisory Council on Poverty prior to the December report said inflation remained a worry for millions of Canadians. 'We noted a growing sense of hopelessness and desperation,' wrote the council. 

Persons with lived expertise of poverty and service providers alike told us things seem worse now than they were before and during the first years of the pandemic.'

We heard that people are worried about the rising cost of living and inflation. More people are in crisis and these crises are more visible in our communities.

Recent increases in the cost of living represent one of the most important socioeconomic challenges faced by people living in Canada following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is expected this will put upward pressure on poverty rates.

In speaking to people it seems as though the feelings of hopefulness and optimism for change that we saw early in the pandemic have faded. Hopelessness and desperation have replaced these as the cost of living continues to increase....

"The social development department last November 28 acknowledged inflation was driving more Canadians into poverty. 'The rising cost of food will be reflected in Canada’s poverty rate,' it wrote."

Read more: https://www.westernstandard.news/news/feds-admit-cost-of-living-flattened-poverty-progress/55295

Canada is Becoming Poor, Here's Why... | Griffin Milks | March 9, 2024:

The return of world hunger

A Plague of Policymakers Returns Hunger to the World | Reason - J.D. Tuccille:

May 27, 2022 - "'Conflict, COVID, the climate crisis and rising costs have combined in 2022 to create jeopardy for the world's 811 million hungry people,' the UN's World Food Program warned earlier this month. The organization went on to name Russia's invasion of Ukraine, climate shocks, 'the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic,' and rising food prices as culprits. 

"This was hardly the first warning along these lines. In June 2021, the International Monetary Fund cautioned that 'early lockdown measures and supply chain disruptions induced a spike in consumer food prices.' Then we saw Thanksgiving headlines in the United States about the cost of serving a holiday meal at a time when the price of food worldwide had risen by almost a third over the previous year. International disruptions in the supply of precursor chemicals prompted Svein Tore Holsether, the CEO and president of fertilizer giant Yara International, to predict a 'food crisis.'

"A combination of always-unpredictable weather, trade disputes, and pandemic lockdowns stretched budgets, boosted costs, and threatened farmers' plans for growing seasons to come. And that was before Russian troops crossed the order of Ukraine, threatening the ability of two major breadbasket countries to satisfy global demand. 'Between them, Ukraine and Russia produce almost a third of the world's wheat and barley and half of its sunflower oil,' UN Secretary-General António Guterres noted on May 18. "There is no effective solution to the food crisis without reintegrating Ukraine's food production, as well as the food and fertilizer produced by Russia and Belarus, into world markets — despite the war.'

"Food prices around the world were up in April by 29.8 percent over the already elevated costs seen in the same month last year, according to the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization. That fueled demonstrations, food riots in Iran, and violent protests that toppled the government in Sri Lanka, which destroyed its own agricultural sector with a ban on modern fertilizers. Understandably, officialdom in many countries panicked. 

"So, in typical political form governments are cutting off trade in what food they have, threatening to make the matter worse. 'India has defended its decision to ban exports of wheat after initially saying it would help ease a global supply crunch created by the war in Ukraine,' Voice of America reported earlier this week.... Malaysia banned the export of chickens, Indonesia restricted (after first outright banning) palm oil exports, and Ghana now blocks the export of rice, maize, and soybeans. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) currently counts 19 countries that forbid the export of some foods, and another seven that require government licenses. 

"Historically, these requirements tend to spread, the organization warns, as governments emulate their neighbors to secure domestic supply. 'Export restrictions often had a cascading effect — when one country announced restrictions, others often followed suit, further exacerbating supply problems and creating a panicked atmosphere in global markets as importers sought to secure new suppliers, sending prices even higher,' according to IFPRI researchers Joseph Glauber, David Laborde, and Abdullah Mamun. 'Other countries have an incentive to have similar policies for similar reasons, and therefore this augments the problem and pushes food prices further up,' Michele Ruta, lead economist at the World Bank for macroeconomics, trade and investment, agreed in a statement to the The Wall Street Journal.

"The export bans can also be devastating for local producers who are cut off from international markets. That may mean ... fewer producers going forward, especially when production costs, including fertilizer and other inputs, are through the roof. 'Exporting helps keep the farms running, because the government's ceiling price at RM8.90 (US$2) keeps chicken prices low, but costs of chicken feed keep increasing month by month,' a Malaysian poultry farmer told ChannelNewsAsia this week. Indonesia's palm oil producers similarly protest restrictions on exports. They warn that because of the controls and a resulting glut of domestic supply, 'prices no longer cover costs.'

"It's difficult to find economists who think that export restrictions on food are a good idea. But politicians often support them anyway because they tend to play well with politically powerful urban constituents.... The inevitable result of export restrictions on food, though, is higher costs around the world, and often reduced production at home as farmers go out of business or switch to unrestricted crops. That means more poverty, hunger, and suffering going forward.

"It's all that much more infuriating when you remember that we previously enjoyed decades of steadily declining poverty and disappearing hunger thanks to innovation, free markets, and open societies. The current chaos can be largely laid at the feet of profoundly stupid policy decisions. Yes, drought, floods, and frosts played a significant role, but nature has never been cooperative, and humans have grown increasingly skilled at producing sufficient calories despite the fickleness of weather and climate. It took lockdowns, trade disputes, ignorant protectionism, and old-fashioned warfare to make the cost and availability of the next meal once again a matter of concern for a growing, rather than shrinking, portion of the world's population."

Read more: https://reason.com/2022/05/27/a-plague-of-policymakers-returns-hunger-to-the-world/

Child labor rising during pandemic, warns UNICEF

Child labour rises to 160 million – first increase in two decades | UNICEF (press release):

June 9, 2021 – "The number of children in child labour has risen to 160 million worldwide – an increase of 8.4 million children in the last four years – with millions more at risk due to the impacts of COVID-19, according to a new report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF. Child Labour: Global estimates 2020, trends and the road forward – released ahead of World Day Against Child Labour on 12th June – warns that progress to end child labour has stalled for the first time in 20 years, reversing the previous downward trend that saw child labour fall by 94 million between 2000 and 2016. 

"The report points to a significant rise in the number of children aged 5 to 11 years in child labour, who now account for just over half of the total global figure. The number of children aged 5 to 17 years in hazardous work – defined as work that is likely to harm their health, safety or morals – has risen by 6.5 million to 79 million since 2016....

"In sub-Saharan Africa, population growth, recurrent crises, extreme poverty, and inadequate social protection measures have led to an additional 16.6 million children in child labour over the past four years. Even in regions where there has been some headway since 2016, such as Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean, COVID-19 is endangering that progress. The report warns that globally, 9 million additional children are at risk of being pushed into child labour by the end of 2022 as a result of the pandemic. A simulation model shows this number could rise to 46 million.... 

"Additional economic shocks and school closures caused by COVID-19 mean that children already in child labour may be working longer hours or under worsening conditions, while many more may be forced into the worst forms of child labour due to job and income losses among vulnerable families. 

'We are losing ground in the fight against child labour, and the last year has not made that fight any easier,' said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. 'Now, well into a second year of global lockdowns, school closures, economic disruptions, and shrinking national budgets, families are forced to make heart-breaking choices. We urge governments and international development banks to prioritize investments in programmes that can get children out of the workforce and back into school, and in social protection programmes that can help families avoid making this choice in the first place.'"

 Other key findings in the report include:                

• The agriculture sector accounts for 70 per cent of children in child labour (112 million) followed by 20 per cent in services (31.4 million) and 10 per cent in industry (16.5 million).   
• Nearly 28 per cent of children aged 5 to 11 years and 35 per cent of children aged 12 to 14 years in child labour are out of school.  Child labour is more prevalent among boys than girls at every age. When household chores performed for at least 21 hours per week are taken into account, the gender gap in child labour narrows.   
• The prevalence of child labour in rural areas (14 per cent) is close to three times higher than in urban areas (5 per cent). 
• Children in child labour are at risk of physical and mental harm." 

Read more: https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/child-labour-rises-160-million-first-increase-two-decades

100 million were pushed into poverty, says ILO

UN Labor Agency Finds Pandemic Pushed Over 100 Million Workers Into Poverty | Common Dreams - Jessica Corbett: 

June 2, 2021 - "Over a year after projecting that the coronavirus pandemic could have a 'catastrophic' impact on the global economy and workforce, the United Nations labor agency on Wednesday revealed that the public health crisis pushed more than 100 million workers worldwide into poverty. 

"The new report (pdf), entitled World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2021 (WESO Trends), also warns of the 'real risk that — absent comprehensive and concerted policy efforts — the Covid-19 crisis will leave behind a legacy of widened inequality and reduced overall progress in the world of work across multiple dimensions.'

"Worryingly, the International Labor Organization (ILO) report shows that 'the recovery process is likely to be both incomplete and uneven,' said Guy Ryder, the agency's director-general, in a video about the findings. 'Incomplete because the damage done will not be fully repaired by the end of 2022, we will still have a major jobs shortfall,' Ryder explained. 'Uneven because it's the rich countries, the high-income countries, which are the best placed — because they have vaccines, because they have the fiscal means to do so — to recover more quickly."

"The ILO found that relative to 2019, an additional 108 million workers worldwide are now moderately or extremely poor — meaning their families must survive on less than $3.20 per person each day. The report says that 'five years of progress towards the eradication of working poverty have been undone.' [emphasis added - gd]

"The pandemic has 'highlighted the vulnerable situation of migrant workers' and undermined recent progress on gender equality, the report adds. According to Agence France-Presse, Ryder told reporters that the ongoing crisis has also negatively affected efforts to end child [labour] and forced labor.

"'Looking ahead, the projected employment growth will be insufficient to close the gaps opened up by the crisis,' WESO Trends warns. 'To make matters worse, many of the newly created jobs are expected to be of low productivity and poor quality.'

"The U.N. agency projects that the pandemic-induced 'jobs gap' will hit 75 million this year and fall to 23 million next year. The gap in working hours — which accounts for the jobs gap and hours reductions — is expected to be the equivalent of 100 million full-time jobs in 2021 and 26 million full-time jobs in 2022.....

"'Worldwide, employment in the accommodation and food services sector is estimated to have been the worst affected by the crisis,' says the report. The wholesale and retail trade sector was also heavily hit, as was manufacturing and construction, which 'incurred a significant decline in employment as a result of the crisis, bearing the brunt of the impact in the industry sector.'

"'Recovery from Covid-19 is not just a health issue. The serious damage to economies and societies needs to be overcome too,' Ryder emphasized in a statement. 'Without a deliberate effort to accelerate the creation of decent jobs, and support the most vulnerable members of society and the recovery of the hardest-hit economic sectors, the lingering effects of the pandemic could be with us for years in the form of lost human and economic potential and higher poverty and inequality.'

"'We need a comprehensive and coordinated strategy, based on human-centered policies, and backed by action and funding," he added. 'There can be no real recovery without a recovery of decent jobs.'"

Read more: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/06/02/un-labor-agency-finds-pandemic-pushed-over-100-million-workers-poverty 

Licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Canada's poor & elderly hit hardest by lockdowns

Canada's COVID-19 strategy is an assault on the working class | Toronto Sun - Martin Kulldorff & Sunetra Gupta:

November 23, 2020 - "The Canadian COVID-19 lockdown strategy is the worst assault on the working class in many decades. Low-risk college students and young professionals are protected; such as lawyers, government employees, journalists, and scientists who can work from home; while older high-risk working-class people must work, risking their lives generating the population immunity that will eventually help protect everyone. This is backwards, leading to many unnecessary deaths from both COVID-19 and other diseases.

"While anyone can get infected, a key feature of COVID-19 is that there is more than a thousand-fold difference in the risk of death between the oldest and the youngest. In fact, children have much less risk from COVID-19 than from the annual influenza. Considering this, we must do a much better job protecting the elderly and other high-risk groups until a vaccine is available. As a contrast, children should go to school in-person while we encourage young adults to live near normal lives to minimize the collateral damage from the pandemic. For them, the public health damage from lockdowns is worse than their minimal risk from COVID-19. 

"Following basic public health principles and numerous pandemic preparedness plans, this is a focused protection strategy, as outlined in the Great Barrington Declaration, with accompanying details on how to properly protect the elderly....

"Despite heroic efforts by the public, the nine-month lockdown and contact tracing strategy has tragically failed older Canadians, with 97% of COVID-19 deaths inflicting those over 60. Where it did 'succeed' was in shifting the COVID-19 burden from affluent professionals to the less affluent working class. For example, in Toronto, the incidence rates were the same at the beginning of the pandemic, but after the March 23 lockdowns, detected cases declined in affluent neighborhoods while they skyrocketed in less affluent areas. A similar effect was subsequently observed for mortality....

"While it is impossible to protect anyone 100% during a pandemic, the notion that we cannot better protect the elderly and other high-risk groups is nonsense. It is not harder to protect the old than it is to protect the affluent, and the former leads to fewer deaths.

"Lockdowns have generated enormous collateral damage on other health outcomes, such as plummeting childhood vaccination rates, worst cardiovascular disease outcomes, less cancer screening, and deteriorating mental health, just to name a few. Even if all lockdowns are lifted tomorrow, this is something that we will have to live with – and die with – for many years to come.

"One of the basic principles of public health is to consider all health outcomes, and not only a single disease. Having thrown that principle out the window, we urgently need to bring it back to minimize mortality and to maximize overall health and well-being."

Read more: https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-canadas-covid-19-strategy-is-an-assault-on-the-working-class

Poor eating rats in second Myanmar lockdown

'Eating rats': Myanmar's second lockdown drives hunger in city slums | Halifax Chronical Herald - Shoon Naing:

October 23, 2020 - "After the first wave of coronavirus hit Myanmar in March, 36-year-old Ma Suu closed her salad stall and pawned her jewelry and gold to buy food to eat During the second wave, when the government issued a stay-home order in September for Yangon, Ma Suu shut her stall again and sold her clothes, plates and pots. With nothing left to sell, her husband, an out of work construction labourer, has resorted to hunting for food in the open drains by the slum where they live on the outskirts of Myanmar's largest city.

"'People are eating rats and snakes,' Ma Suu said through tears. 'Without an income, they need to eat like that to feed their children.' They live in Hlaing Thar Yar, one of Yangon's poorest neighborhoods, where residents shine flashlights in the undergrowth behind their homes, looking for some night creature to stave off their hunger.

"With more than 40,000 cases and 1,000 deaths, Myanmar is facing one of Southeast Asia’s worst coronavirus outbreaks, and the lockdown in Yangon has left hundreds of thousands of people, like Ma Suu, without work and precious little support. Local administrator Nay Min Tun said in his part of Hlaing Thar Yar 40% of households had received aid but many workplaces are shut and people had become more desperate. Myat Min Thu, the ruling party lawmaker for the area, said government aid and private donations was being distributed but acknowledged not everyone could be covered....

"Even before the pandemic, a third of Myanmar’s 53 million people were considered 'highly vulnerable' to falling into poverty, despite recent gains following the country’s emergence from decades of ruinous isolation under the military junta. The financial squeeze now threatens to plunge many back into poverty or squash their chances of getting out.

"Poverty in the developing East Asia and Pacific region is set to rise for the first time in 20 years ... the World Bank said in September, with about 38 million expected to remain in or be pushed back into poverty."

Read more: https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/news/world/eating-rats-myanmars-second-lockdown-drives-hunger-in-city-slums-512655/

Humanitarian aid groups turning to blockchain

PolloPollo: The crypto project putting chicken back on the table in Venezuela - Decrypt - Adriana Hamacher:

November 9, 2019 - "In a TV broadcast last month, Venezuelan President Maduro suggested installing hen coops in classrooms to feed the country’s starving children. It’s a measure of the enduring humanitarian crisis that he’s persistently insisted does not exist. And this stance, say aid workers, makes it impossible for international agencies, like UNICEF and the World Food Programme, to airlift and distribute the supplies that Venezuelans so desperately need....

"But a new initiative, PolloPollo, is hoping to put poultry, and other groceries back on the table once again. PolloPollo is using blockchain to deliver on its promise, but also to address questions of transparency and accountability that have been levied against other donation programs....

"It’s not the only one. Further afield, the World Food Programme has also been using DLT [distributed ledger technology] to distribute aid to those who need it most since early last year, and is now both expanding the ground it covers and improving on the technology....

"Casper Niebe, PolloPollo’s founder, told Decrypt [that aid] recipients don’t even need a smartphone. They simply have to register on the platform’s website, and post a request.... When a third party responds to the request and makes a donation on the platform, the person requesting food gets a text message or an email. They then pick up and digitally sign for their supplies from a food retailer or producer nearby. The shop or farm then receives payment for the produce in 'bytes,' the cryptocurrency of the Obyte platform PolloPollo is built on. The final step is when an Obyte representative visits the supplier and converts the cryptocurrency into Venezuelan Bolivars, or another crypto.

"Niebe said that the project was born out of his frustration at the lack of transparency in current aid distribution platforms. Transaction fees and costs eat up around 3.5 percent of the average donation, according to estimates, and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned that up to 30 percent of development funds are lost to corruption.... Niebe believes PolloPollo is a better solution, one that offers more accountability. With their digital signature, the aid recipients activate the smart contract that ensures suppliers are paid. And donors are notified via the PolloPollo platform.....

"Since early in 2018, the World Food Programme has been using blockchain to address the food shortages that dog the 106,000 refugees who have fled Syria, and set up temporary homes in Jordan’s camps. 'Currently, we’re exploring the foundational blockchain layer, rather than cryptocurrency,' Houman Haddad, the UN executive behind the project, told Decrypt.

"His initiative, Building Blocks, provides food vouchers for the refugees to redeem in local stores. It uses a 'permissioned' or private version of the Ethereum blockchain, together with iris scanning technology, to manage the data underpinning the delivery of the vouchers. To buy food, a recipient need only go to a participating supermarket, where their iris is scanned and the price of the food they need is deducted from the family’s account....

"Instead of furnishing refugees with crypto, Haddad’s dream is to roll out a more decentralized version of Building Blocks; one that all 40 of the organizations assisting people in the camps can use.... Meanwhile, Building Blocks is expanding to Bangladesh and rolling out a blockchain that Haddad hopes will — eventually — service more than 800,000 Rohinga refugees."

Read more: https://decrypt.co/10972/pollopollo-the-crypto-project-putting-chicken-back-on-the-table-in-venezuela
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Rand Paul sees return of congressional gridlock

Rand Paul on How Libertarian Philosophy Can Connect Divided Partisans | Duke Today:

November 9, 2018 - "What should we expect from Congress between January and the presidential election in 2020, now that Democrats have won back the House? Not much, according to one U.S. senator.

"'I think very little will happen,' said U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky who spoke Friday at the Sanford School. 'I think Democrats will bring forth initiatives in the House and they will die in the Senate.'

"Paul, who earned his medical degree from Duke in 1988 and has a son who’s a sophomore here, also talked about how his fellow Republicans can work more productively with Democrats.... Paul said he agrees with liberals on a number of issues, including: war ('I’m as anti-war as you can get'); relaxed criminalization for drug offenses ('There is a racial disparity in drug policy and we should do something about it'); less government eavesdropping on Americans in the name of fighting terrorism; and not allowing a U.S. citizen to be held indefinitely as an enemy combatant without a trial....

"Most of the compromising in Washington involves too much shared back-scratching: the left gets its welfare spending so the right can get its military spending, he said.  He believes the main role of government is to protect liberty.... 'I think we should really self-examine what government is.'

"Asked how he reconciles smaller government with economic disparity, Paul said, “There is no world in which there is no inequality'.... He said there’s 'more mobility than you think,' and that while not perfect, the United States’ and other nations’ embrace of capitalism has helped reduce extreme poverty from around 85 percent worldwide in the 1800s to around 9 percent of the world today.... He disagrees with Trump on immigration, which he said is an asset, especially in today’s hot economy where workers can be hard to find.

"Asked about gun control in the wake of recent mass killings ... Paul said he doesn’t believe that’s the answer since '99 percent of gun owners aren’t killing people'.... Better law enforcement work would help, especially investigating potential threats to the fullest extent, he said....

"Asked how he can be against government intrusion into private lives yet oppose a woman’s right to an abortion, Paul said it’s a question that divides Libertarians, but noted their political philosophy typically opposes aggression. 'If you think the baby is not a person, do what you want,' he said. 'If you think it’s a person then Libertarians say the government has a role to stop it.'

"The event was hosted by the Young Americans for Liberty student organization and POLIS: Duke's Center for Political Leadership, Innovation, and Service."

Read more: https://today.duke.edu/2018/11/rand-paul-how-libertarian-philosophy-can-connect-divided-partisans

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Oxfam fighting "extreme" wealth, not poverty

Oxfam Cares More About Ideology than Poverty - Foundation for Economic Education - Working for a free and prosperous world - Martin van Staden:

January 27, 2018 - "Oxfam recently published its latest report on global inequality, pretentiously titled Reward Work, Not Wealth. In the report, Oxfam not only regurgitates all the same economic fallacies we’re used to — chief among them, the labor theory of value and the notion that wealth inequality is a problem to be solved — but it goes on to make dangerous and authoritarian recommendations to governments on how they should respond to this supposed 'inequality crisis'....

"Oxfam is among that cabal of non-government organizations that love the much-touted slogan that the world’s wealth is increasingly being concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people..... In this year’s report, however, Oxfam cites research that 2017 saw the biggest increase in the number of billionaires in human history; 'one more every two days,' the charity claims. But ... Oxfam ... considers this phenomenon as indicative of 'extreme wealth' ... a problem that must be ended.

"Either wealth is increasingly being concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people ... or, as Oxfam reported this year, there has been a substantial, indeed unprecedented, increase in the number of billionaires. Oxfam should decide what its angle is going to be....

"The report makes another incredible claim: globally, billionaires’ wealth increased by $762 billion in 12 months. According to Oxfam, this 'huge increase could have ended global extreme poverty seven times over.' There is, of course, a massive problem with this claim. In 2011 alone, the United States government spent more than $668 billion on 126 welfare programs.... According to Michael Tanner at the Cato Institute, the United States has spent nearly $15 trillion on welfare since the War on Poverty was declared by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964....

"Poverty is ended through employment, savings, and, crucially, a political environment conducive to economic freedom and economic growth; not by throwing money at the problem. Thankfully, on the up-side totally ignored by Oxfam, global extreme poverty has fallen dramatically over recent decades. It is likely that extreme poverty will be eliminated within the current generation. This won’t satiate Oxfam, however, because it concerns itself with the rich, not the destitute....

"Among a laundry list of state-centric suggestions, Oxfam calls on governments to 'use regulation and taxation to radically reduce levels of extreme wealth, as well as limit the influence of wealthy individuals and groups over policymaking.” It is safe to assume that Oxfam excludes itself — an extremely wealthy lobbying organization, having received over $244 million from governments alone between 2015-16 — from those groups that need limiting. It further advocates that governments should set targets 'for the collective income of the top 10% to be no more than the income of the bottom 40%'....

"It is high time that Oxfam be reduced to irrelevancy, at least as far as public policy goes. Its dodgy methodology, nit-picking of facts, and ideological commitment to the non-problem of inequality – at the expense of the very real problem of destitution – make it an intellectually dishonest player in policy advocacy. To the extent that Oxfam still engages in charity work, we must wish it all the best of luck. But solving poverty will not come out of its recommendations; instead, it will only yield more despair and tyranny.""

Read more: https://fee.org/articles/oxfam-cares-more-about-ideology-than-poverty/
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Limits to charity

Charity Is Not How We Solve Poverty | Foundation for Economic Education - Jason Sorens:

February 19, 2017 - "In a famous 1972 article, 'Famine, Affluence, and Morality,' philosopher Peter Singer compared global poverty to a child drowning in a pond: ': '[I]f it is in our power to prevent something very bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything morally significant, we ought, morally, to do it. An application of this principle would be as follows: if I am walking past a shallow pond and see a child drowning in it, I ought to wade in and pull the child out. This will mean getting my clothes muddy, but this is insignificant, while the death of the child would presumably be a very bad thing.'

"If we ought to prevent something very bad from happening whenever we can do so without sacrificing anything morally significant, then we also ought to spend much of our lives and wealth on rescuing people from starvation and disease.... Instead of buying a Starbucks coffee once a week, you could save that money – about $200 over the course of a year – and give it to a charity that saves lives. It’s morally wrong to buy Starbucks coffee when there are people dying around the world. Letting someone die so that you can enjoy Starbucks is like letting a child drown rather than getting your suit muddy....

"Singer’s argument faces two main difficulties. First, he thinks it’s obvious that consuming luxuries isn’t morally significant. But is that right?... Second, he thinks saving poor people’s lives is about as simple as wading into a pond and dragging a drowning child out of danger. But in fact it might be a lot more complicated.

"Let’s think about the first point. Global poverty is a really big problem. There are millions of people suffering from extreme poverty and a very high likelihood of early death. If it were always wrong to consume a luxury whenever there were someone whose life could be saved instead, we would in fact be morally obligated never to consume any luxury, and to spend essentially our whole surplus wealth and time on saving people. It’s as if there were millions of ponds with millions of children drowning in them. To live up to a moral duty to save every life, we’d have to spend our entire lives going from pond to pond.

"That kind of life might not be worth living. You’d be turning yourself into a virtual slave of the people you save. Your life would have no value to you.... It isn’t clear at what point it becomes morally permissible for us to focus on our own desires rather than spending our resources on saving others, but it’s definitely well before the point of 'marginal utility' (when you become as bad off as someone in extreme poverty). The point isn’t that you don’t have a duty to save people – you do – but there are limits, real though difficult to nail down precisely, to the duty.

"The second point is that saving people isn’t simple. Giving money to a charity that claims to help people may not do very much good and may even do net harm. Extreme poverty in the world today is generally the fault of some human organization or institution, usually a government but often rebel groups, gangs, and other purveyors of violence.... If giving to a charity empowers some vicious gang or government that keeps people poor, you’ve just made poor people’s lives worse....

"Extreme poverty is falling around the world, mostly because governments have chosen to let their people join the global marketplace. The biggest reductions in poverty have happened in China, where post-1980 market reforms have raised 680 million people out of poverty. One of the most important things we can do to better the lives of the poor is to fight for their access to property rights and to global markets."

Read more: https://fee.org/articles/charity-is-not-how-we-solve-poverty/
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Niskanen economist urges Universal Basic Income

Why Should a Libertarian Take Universal Basic Income Seriously? - Niskanen Center - Edwin G. Dolan:

February 6, 2017 - "In a recent post on EconLog, Bryan Caplan writes, 'I’m baffled that anyone with libertarian sympathies takes the UBI [universal basic income] seriously.' I love a challenge.... Here are three kinds of libertarians who might take a UBI very seriously indeed.

"[W]hat galls many libertarians most about government is the failure of many policies to produce their intended results. Poverty policy is Exhibit A.... A UBI would help by ending the way benefit reductions and 'welfare cliffs' in current programs undermine work incentives ... a worker from a poor household can end up taking home nothing, even from a full-time job. A UBI has no benefit reductions. You get it whether you work or not, so you keep every added dollar you earn (income and payroll taxes excepted, and these are low for the poor).

"But ... Why would I work at all if you gave me a UBI? That might be a problem if you got your UBI on top of existing programs, but if it replaced those programs, work incentives would be strengthened, not weakened.... Or, you might say, a UBI might be fine for the poor, but wouldn’t it be unaffordable to give it to the middle class and the rich as well? Yes, if you added it on top of all the middle-class welfare and tax loopholes for the rich that we have now. No, if the UBI replaced existing tax preferences and other programs....

"Many classical liberals, even those whom purist libertarians lionize in other contexts, are more open to the idea of a social safety net.... In his book Law, Legislation, and Liberty, classical liberal Friedrich Hayek wrote, "The assurance of a certain minimum income for everyone, or a sort of floor below which nobody need fall even when he is unable to provide for himself, appears not only to be a wholly legitimate protection against a risk common to all, but a necessary part of the Great Society."

"Once the philosophical hurdle is overcome, the practical advantages of a UBI become highly attractive. In terms of administrative efficiency and work incentives, a UBI wins hands down over the current welfare system, and beats even the negative income tax famously championed by Milton Friedman, another classical liberal,.

"The libertarian sympathies of still others arise from the conviction that all people should be able to live their lives according to their own values, so long as they don’t interfere with the right of others to do likewise. These lifestyle libertarians are drawn to a UBI because of its contrast with the nanny state mentality that characterizes current policies. Why should social programs treat married couples differently from people living in unconventional communal arrangements? Why should welfare recipients have to undergo intrusive drug testing? Why should food stamps let you buy hamburger and feed it to your dog, but not buy dog food?....

"A UBI is a policy for pragmatic critics of well-intentioned but ineffective government, for classical liberals, and for advocates of personal freedom. No wonder so many libertarians take the idea seriously."

Read more: https://niskanencenter.org/blog/libertarian-take-universal-basic-income-seriously/

Where Charles Koch & Bernie Sanders agree

Charles Koch: This is the one issue where Bernie Sanders is right - The Washington Post:

February 18, 2016 - "Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) often sounds like he’s running as much against me as he is the other candidates.... I see benefits in searching for common ground and greater civility during this overly negative campaign season. That’s why, in spite of the fact that he often misrepresents where I stand on issues, the senator should know that we do agree on at least one....

"The senator is upset with a political and economic system that is often rigged to help the privileged few at the expense of everyone else, particularly the least advantaged. He believes that we have a two-tiered society that increasingly dooms millions of our fellow citizens to lives of poverty and hopelessness. He thinks many corporations seek and benefit from corporate welfare while ordinary citizens are denied opportunities and a level playing field.

"I agree with him.

"Democrats and Republicans have too often favored policies and regulations that pick winners and losers. This helps perpetuate a cycle of control, dependency, cronyism and poverty in the United States.... Large portions of the business community have actively pushed for these policies.

"Consider the regulations, handouts, mandates, subsidies and other forms of largesse our elected officials dole out to the wealthy and well-connected. The tax code alone contains $1.5 trillion in exemptions and special-interest carve-outs. Anti-competitive regulations cost businesses an additional $1.9 trillion every year. Perversely, this regulatory burden falls hardest on small companies, innovators and the poor, while benefitting many large companies like ours. This unfairly benefits established firms and penalizes new entrants, contributing to a two-tiered society.

"Whenever we allow government to pick winners and losers, we impede progress and move further away from a society of mutual benefit. This pits individuals and groups against each other and corrupts the business community, which inevitably becomes less focused on creating value for customers. That’s why Koch Industries opposes all forms of corporate welfare — even those that benefit us. (The government’s ethanol mandate is a good example. We oppose that mandate, even though we are the fifth-largest ethanol producer in the United States)....

"I applaud the senator for giving a voice to many Americans struggling to get ahead in a system too often stacked in favor of the haves, but I disagree with his desire to expand the federal government’s control over people’s lives. This is what built so many barriers to opportunity in the first place.

"Consider America’s War on Poverty. Since its launch under President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, we have spent roughly $22 trillion, yet our poverty rate remains at 14.8 percent. Instead of preventing, curing and relieving the causes and symptoms of poverty (the goals of the program when it began), too many communities have been torn apart and remain in peril while even more tax dollars pour into this broken system.

"It is results, not intentions, that matter. History has proven that a bigger, more controlling, more complex and costlier federal government leaves the disadvantaged less likely to improve their lives....

"When it comes to electing our next president, we should reward those candidates, Democrat or Republican, most committed to the principles of a free society. Those principles start with the right to live your life as you see fit as long as you don’t infringe on the ability of others to do the same. They include equality before the law, free speech and free markets and treating people with dignity, respect and tolerance. In a society governed by such principles, people succeed by helping others improve their lives."

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-koch-this-is-the-one-issue-where-bernie-sanders-is-right/2016/02/18/cdd2c228-d5c1-11e5-be55-2cc3c1e4b76b_story.html
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A libertarian perspective on the Baltimore riots

Nick Pandelidis: A Libertarian perspective on the Baltimore riots - York Daily Record:

May 8, 2015 - "I ... offer some reflections on the Baltimore riots. My purpose is not to present rigorous arguments regarding causes and potential solutions but rather to make a few broad observations from a libertarian perspective.

"The first observation is the changed nature of inner-city policing. Not so long ago, inner cities were composed of mostly civil neighborhoods where police protected and served the law-abiding citizen majority from a small population of criminals. Now, those neighborhoods have morphed into war zones where many young black men are (often not inappropriately) designated as criminal elements and have their constitutional rights routinely violated — including being beaten or killed for 'resisting arrest.' On the other side of the equation, police legitimately fear for their lives patrolling armed-drug-gang-controlled neighborhoods. And law-abiding citizens are caught in the crossfire....

"The second observation is that a misguided and failed war against drugs has significantly contributed to the breakdown of inner-city civil order. Criminalization of drugs has driven up prices and made drug dealing the most profitable and seemingly most glamorous employment option available to many inner-city youth.

"U.S. taxpayers have spent more than $1 trillion over the four decades of the war on drugs. And yet, the U.S. is the first in the world in illegal drug use, addiction rates are no lower, overdose death rates are at all-time highs, and tens of thousands of persons have died in drug-related violence in the U.S., Mexico and South America. In addition, our legal system has more than 500,000 individuals in prison for drug violations.

"The third observation relates to another failed government war, the war on poverty. Since the beginning of the Great Society in 1965, taxpayers have spent $15 trillion on anti-poverty programs and continue to spend more than $700 billion annually. And yet, the poverty rate which fell dramatically during the economic expansion of the prior 25 years has essentially remained unchanged since the war on poverty began.

"However well-meaning the original intent of our welfare system, it is undeniable that this "social safety net" program has resulted in unwed motherhood rates exceeding 80 percent and families nearly completely absent of fathers. The sons of single mothers in these fatherless communities are the principal perpetrators of violent crime in our cities today.

"The final observation is the evident pent-up anger and frustration manifested in the rioters' destruction of businesses and property within their own communities. This social unrest is less a product of poverty and more a product of a sense of hopelessness from a lack of economic opportunity and the humiliation of dependency....

"The poor in America are trapped on two sides. On one hand, they can't achieve because of the failure of inner-city government k-12 schools to provide the educational foundation for marketable skills, minimum wage regulation and occupational licensing preventing entrance into the work force, and general tax and regulatory burdens hindering small business formation. And on the other, welfare programs have provided an easy way to survive and promoted dependency.... In retrospect, the very social and tax policies that were conceived to help the poor have only ensconced dependency and hopelessness."

Read more: http://www.ydr.com/letters/ci_28075995/nick-pandelidis-libertarian-perspective-baltimore-riots
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Are Catholic libertarians heretics?

Catholics Divided on Libertarianism as ‘Heresy’ | TheBlaze.com - Fred Lucas:

May 9, 2014 - "Is libertarianism 'heresy'? That question prompted a theological and political debate among writers for three major Catholic publications....

"A recently published Catholic argument for libertarianism showed a 'complete lack of human solidarity,' wrote Michael Sean Winters, author of the 2008 book, Left at the Alter. 'Callous and cold and, just so, not very Christian let alone Catholic'....

"The specific piece Winters was so angry about was written by Joe Hargrave, an adjunct professor of political science at Rio Salado Community College in Tempe, Arizona, in the magazine Crisis.

 "'Among the poorest areas of the United States one will find high rates of crime, drug abuse, educational failure, sexual deviance, illegitimacy, and so on,' Hargrave wrote.

"This is not to say that people in these areas ought to be written off, but it is to say that no employer is obliged to subsidize their moral failings – and neither are we, the frugal, well-behaved wage-earners to whom Leo XIII refers.... This is not just about the moral failings of the poor, as libertarians do not want to pay for the birth control pills of middle class college students or provide massive bailouts and subsidies for major banks and businesses either'....

"Hargrave’s piece was itself a response to a Catholic blogger that insisted libertarianism was absolute heresy.

"'Catholics influenced by libertarian ideology (aka heresy) need to .. instead of ransacking Catholic teaching for the subsidiarity bits that happen to comport with libertarian heresy, instead embrace the fullness of Catholic teaching, including the Church’s teaching on solidarity, the common good, and the legitimate role of the state,' wrote Mark Shea, a writer for the Catholic publication Patheos."

Read more: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/05/09/catholics-divided-on-libertarianism-as-heresy/
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Why Charles Murray supports guaranteed income

Libertarian Charles Murray: The welfare state has denuded our civic culture | Making Sen$e | PBS NewsHour:

April 10, 2010 - "Switzerland is considering a ballot referendum on an unconditional income of 30,000 Francs for all Swiss citizens.... But ... guaranteed basic income ... has plenty of American proponents.... Perhaps most outspoken among them is libertarian economist Charles Murray, who argues that a guaranteed income administered by the government would take the government out of people’s lives, and consequently, restore the fabric of American culture.... The following transcript of Paul Solman’s extended conversation with Murray about the guaranteed income has been edited and condensed for length and clarity....

Paul Solman: What’s the case for a minimum income?
Charles Murray: From a libertarian’s point of view, we’re going to be spending a lot of money on income transfers, no matter what.
Paul Solman: Why?
Charles Murray: The society is too rich to stand aside and say, “We aren’t going to do anything for people in need.” I understand that; I accept that; I sympathize with it.
    "What I want is a grand compromise between the left and the right. We on the right say, 'We will give you huge government, in terms of the amount of money we spend. You give us small government, in terms of the ability of government to mess around with people’s lives.'
    "So you have a system whereby every month, a check goes into an electronic bank account for everybody over the age of 21, which they can use as they see fit. They can get together with other people and then combine their resources. But they live their own lives. We put their lives back in their hands"

Read more: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/libertarian-charles-murray-the-welfare-state-has-denuded-our-civic-culture/
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Guaranteed Income as a Replacement for the Welfare State, by Charles Murray

Dear Pope: It's a better world than you think

Is the Pope Right About the World? - Marian Tupy - The Atlantic:

December 11, 2013 - "In Evangelii Gaudium, an 'apostolic exhortation' released late last month, the pope bemoans inequality, poverty, and violence in the world.

"But here’s the problem: The dystopian world that Francis describes, without citing a single statistic, is at odds with reality. In appealing to our fears and pessimism, the pope fails to acknowledge the scope and rapidity of human accomplishment — whether measured through declining global inequality and violence, or growing prosperity and life expectancy....

"First, consider inequality. Academic researchers ... all agree that global inequality is declining. That is because 2.6 billion people in China and India are richer than they used to be. Their economies are growing much faster than those of their Western counterparts, thus shrinking the income gap that opened at the dawn of industrialization in the 19th century, when the West took off and left much of the rest of the world behind.

"Paradoxically, the shrinking of the global inequality gap was only possible after India and China abandoned their attempts to create equality through central planning....

"Second, let’s look at poverty.... Brookings Institution researchers Laurence Chandy and Geoffrey Gertz ... 'estimate that between 2005 and 2010, the total number of poor people around the world fell by nearly half a billion, from over 1.3 billion in 2005 to under 900 million in 2010. Poverty reduction of this magnitude is unparalleled in history: never before have so many people been lifted out of poverty over such a brief period of time.'"

Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/12/is-the-pope-right-about-the-world/282276/
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More anti-libertarian nonsense: Libertarians are heartless

More anti-libertarian nonsense: Libertarians are heartless | Washington Times Communities - Thomas Mullen:

March 28, 2013 - "This week’s anti-libertarian nonsense is 'libertarians are heartless.'

"There are many variations on this theme. Libertarians oppose government-run education so they must not want poor people to get an education. They oppose government-run healthcare so they must want poor, sick people to die. They oppose government-subsidized housing so they must want poor people to be homeless, too (if they aren’t already)....

"The people who make these claims don’t understand what libertarianism is and don’t really understand the nature of government or their relationship to it, either.

"Libertarians do not object to you helping the poor. They merely object to you forcing someone else to help the poor."

Read more: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/reawakening-liberty/2013/mar/28/more-anti-libertarian-nonsense-libertarians-are-he/
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