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Poverty

City, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Free Markets, Government Spending, Local Government, Marketing, Poverty, University, WEDC, Wisconsin

Wisconsin on Pace for Most Layoff Notifications Since WEDC Created

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WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and Sports Now I thought, as it’s what I have heard again, again, and again, that the WEDC was the Laser-Focused Semi-Private Job Creator of Wisconsin™.  How odd, then, to read that since the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s inception, Wisconsin is on pace for more job layoffs than…

City, Corporate Welfare, Development, Local Government, Poverty

Three Motivations for Local Government Intervention (and One That’s Sadly Missing)

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In Whitewater, we’ve had any number of local projects, some involving millions, in a town of only thousands.   Broadly, one may assume three motivations for local intervention: (1) genuine if mistaken efforts at community betterment, (2) the vanity or economic interest of parties to a project, or (3) a desire to prevent demographic and…

City, Poverty

Poverty in Our Area

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Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates, for children aged 5 to 17 in families in poverty, rate as a percentage of all children that age: Delavan-Darien Edgerton Elkhorn Area Fort Atkinson Jefferson Milton Whitewater Area 2007 10.98 7.10 11.60 7.01 8.05 5.4 9.89 2008 11.90 8.22 15.28 8.78…

City, Economy, Poverty

A City’s Most Important Economic Measure

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Yesteday, I asked, “What’s Whitewater’s Economy?” If it should be true – and it is – that a genuine economic discussion is more than a budgetary one, then what economic measures should matter most?    There’s no single measurement that explains it all, but what would one say about an economy if one were compelled to pick…

Government Spending, Libertarians, Poverty

How Selfish Politicians Use the Poor or Children to Protect Wasteful Programs that Have Nothing to Do with the Poor or Children

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It’s a cruel game to defend government spending on the well-fed with the lament that spending cuts must be stopped, lest the poor and vulnerable suffer. The poor and vulnerable will not suffer in a society that reduces spending on corporate welfare, sham job-creation programs, so-called business-development grants, and spending on weapons so expensive and…

City, Poverty

Whitewater’s Decade of Child Poverty

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The only way to make an ill person truly and permanently better is to see her condition for what it is; genuine recovery requires an honest diagnosis. Despite my doubts about their program, I respect Roosevelt’s New Dealers’ for their willingness to call a problem a problem. If they had lived to see contemporary Whitewater,…

Economy, Poverty

More Americans in Dire Poverty, But There’s a Way Out

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Disconcerting economic data have this advantage: they’re a useful reminder of work ahead, and a spur to greater zeal. Best fiscal choices in times of poverty: spending cuts (beginning with elimination of leadership posts) to fund a reduction in taxes, return of most tax money to taxpayers and businesses, with second source of expense savings…

Free Markets, Libertarians, Poverty

On Poverty Spending

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Libertarians believe in ‘limited government, individual liberty, free markets, and peace.” Limited government means less spending (and so fewer taxes, and a lower public debt). That doesn’t mean there should be no spending. People have a right to defend themselves (defense, policing) even if we may spend too much in those areas (influential defense contractors…

Free Markets, Libertarians, Liberty, Poverty

Philosopher Matt Zwolinski on ‘Bleeding-Heart Libertarians,’ The Poor, and Social Justice

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I’ve posted before on libertarian professor Matt Zwolinski’s left-of-center libertarianism (see, from the Daily Caller, Seven reasons progressives should be more libertarian). Here’s a video where he discusses so-called ‘bleeding heart’ libertarianism. Although I don’t think of myself as more of a left or more of a right-of-center libertarian, there’s nothing in Zwolinski’s emphasis on…