-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Compassionate Communism policy.
They must have missed the Harvard & Exeter Uni. study that found no strings attached funding harmed low income recipients.
There Allysia Finley writes:
“It’s no surprise that people who received a large percentage of their monthly income for doing nothing were less motivated to work and felt less satisfied with their work.
Earning a paycheck can give workers a sense of personal agency that encourages them to make better financial and health decisions.”
Paywall site:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-high-cost-of-free-money-harvard-exeter-study-stimulus-handout-low-income-well-being-health-personal-agency-poverty-covid-11658166372
Free:
https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/new-study-sledgehammers-universal-basic-income-arguments
It’s too late for Illinois, but Republican majority states need to amend their Constitutions to prevent programs like this. In fact, they’ll also need amendments to prevent the other crazy tenets of the woke agenda.
Insanity. There’s no other word for it.
I know and have worked with The Shriver Center. Years ago, they were indeed very liberal, but some of their policy proposals were “somewhat” fairly coherent. But since BLM, etc., they’ve really gone off the rails with the “free stuff” mantra. I work in social services/workforce development, and I can state as a fact that when you remove work/training incentives for able – bodied people that you are courting dependence, mayhem, and ultimate disaster. At least this added money will enable the recipients to up their spending on drugs, booze, lotto and other frivolous stuff. This is especially troubling: “Commissioner… Read more »
The fairly low limits for medicaid eligibility are a disincentive for recipients to legally enter the workforce. I have extended family members who receive medicaid benefits and it’s a miserable existence. They run out of money 3 weeks into the month and visit food pantries, their furniture is old and decrepit, they rarely leave the house because they have no money for gas, and their only entertainment is television. But if they made several hundred dollars more a month, their household income would be too high, and their benefits would be reduced, and their low-income rent would go up proportionally.… Read more »
You are spot – on about “the honest poor people”, self – sufficiency should be encouraged, but there are disincentives “baked into” the system that discourages that… they genuinely need “a hand up”, not “handout”. The ones that “game the system”, unfortunately, are shameless, and there are *many* of them. It’s simply another “lifestyle” choice, and this way of life has been encouraged for the last 60 years, starting with the “Great Society” programs – read Daniel Moynihan, what he wrote back then holds true today… plus anything by Thomas Sowell and other Black conservatives, who are totally ignored by… Read more »
Exactly correct that the poor whites have followed down the same destructive path. Charles Murray’s “Coming Apart”, written in 2000, documents exactly what you describe. It is also describes the elite “bubble” that is now so obvious. He saw it 20 years ago.
A single mom with four kids can get $992.00 per month in SNAP benefits. Many sell these benefits for 50% or so on the dollar for cash, it’s a huge racket, endemic. Then these swindlers flood the food pantries and other free food sources, reasoning “Why should I use money to pay for food when I get it for free?”. Thing is, many poor folks really *do* depend on the food pantries, so this is hard on them… It’s a cliché I know, but these are the fraudsters we see on TV during the holiday turkey giveaways, rolling up in… Read more »
That’s my view exactly. Human nature is what it is. People like those at Shriver Center just won’t accept that.
My brother is a well known Phd economist and investor. It drives me crazy every time he and his academic colleagues advocate for a universal income in lieu of all other social benefits (save Medicare). These economists do (in theory) correctly point out the inefficiencies of government programs and the waste and disincentives that come with them, and that direct payments would deliver (in theory) more value to recipients. But really, there is no way anyone in the political class in this country would ever support a universal income program in lieu of all other benefits. So universal income is… Read more »
Can confirm the stoppage of rent payments. Buddy of mine is a landlord and a couple couldn’t pay their rent, even after receiving all the government money. When he asked them what happened to the government money, they just shrugged their shoulders. He told them “I put a warm, safe, affordable roof over your head, and this is how you treat me?” Blank stares.
The government rent bailout money basically paid off these landlords in part in exchange for not evicting or just allowing them to move out voluntarily. Everywhere in the country expected mass evictions and it just didn’t happen. Then over an 8 month period all the swindlers left their non-payment apartments and began looking for new ones. It was a game of musical chairs that sent rent soaring. Rents today are higher than ever which just happens to coincide with millions of deadbeats swapping apartments. A relative of mine on a fixed income had his rent go up $200 a month!… Read more »
Excellent points, and thanks for recommending “Life at the Bottom”… the underclass in the UK is indeed white, so this is not a race – specific thing…
Thanks Willowglen. Guarantied income is truly the ultimate progressive insanity.