October 2, 2024
The effect of taxes and transfers on low-earning workers’ income.
Despite misperceptions that the United States is limping through late-stage capitalism, American workers are more highly compensated than ever before—even the lowest earners. The 20th percentile earner—worse-off than 80 percent of workers—had annual earnings 19 percent higher in 2022 than in 1979, after accounting for inflation and a decline in women choosing to work only…
October 2, 2024
AOC’s “Social Housing” Dead End
New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, an avatar of the progressive Left, recently shared her vision of how America’s housing shortage should be addressed in a New York Times op-ed cowritten with Senator Tina Smith of New Jersey. Ocasio-Cortez’s vision resurrects the debunked Great Depression-era argument that the private housing market is fundamentally flawed and must be replaced by…
October 2, 2024
Higher Education: Making Education Beyond High School Work for All
Executive Summary and Introduction: For generations, society has told high school students that college is a great investment. The case is familiar: college graduates typically earn more money than their peers without degrees, and a college education is necessary for the 21st century labor market. For low-income students especially, college has been sold as a…
September 30, 2024
Our Academic Productivity After the Council of Economic Advisers
Abstract Gordon Tullock wrote that government economists found capable of “firefighting” are assigned to do more of it, “with the result that the higher ranks of government economists aren’t able to read.” We here offer ourselves as confounding data points, for our experiences have been otherwise. We read a lot. This article reports how doing…
September 27, 2024
Justice at Any Cost?
“Almost 9,000 children in California foster care could soon be taken from homes over insurance crisis,” reads one among a dozen similar headlines that have appeared in West Coast media over recent weeks. The stories all suggest a situation that snuck up on the child-welfare establishment and political leaders. Yet this problem has simmered for…
September 25, 2024
Disconnected: The Growing Class Divide in American Civic Life
Key Points Read the PDF. Executive Summary At one time, American social and civic life was characterized by robust networks of social connections and activities. But in the years following the pandemic, which curtailed social opportunities and community activities, there are few signs of recovery. The American Social Capital Survey reveals that American civic life…
September 25, 2024
The Costs of Inaction: Economic Risks from Housing Unaffordability
Chairman Whitehouse, Ranking Member Grassley, and committee members, thank you for the opportunity to testify on this most important topic. History offers a cautionary tale against inappropriate federal action in the housing market: From the 1930s to 2008, Congress passed and presidents signed into law at least 43 housing, urban renewal, and community development programs. Despite their lofty…
September 24, 2024
Household Food Insecurity Rises Again – Inflation, especially for households ineligible for safety net programs, to blame
Each year the USDA issues a closely-followed report on the extent of food insecurity in the United States. This year, the USDA reported 13.5 percent of US households were food insecure at some point in 2023, which was a statistically significant increase from the 2022 rate of 12.8 percent and higher than the pre-pandemic rate…
September 23, 2024
The Last Bipartisan Policy
Name a policy that Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, Ron DeSantis, and Gavin Newsome all support. And I don’t mean something they are passively allowing or a shallow endorsement of motherhood and apple pie, but real, meaningful policy they are running on in campaigns and enacting while in office. The list of such policies is not…
September 23, 2024
Toward a Potential Grand Bargain for the Nation
The views expressed in this report are those of the individual authors who collectively constitute the Grand Bargain Committee, co-chaired by Michael R. Strain and Isabel V. Sawhill. This report was sponsored by the Center for Collaborative Democracy and was prepared independent of influence from the center and from any other outside party or institution. It…