Readit NewsHis shtick is real estate investment, of course he wants to see Joe Public buy a starter home. The trouble is: real estate as a government-guaranteed investment vehicle is what brought us the housing affordability crisis.
I know it's probably not intentional but I believe welfare in the US absolutely is rife with negative outcomes and negative incentives for people receiving support, it doesn't uplift and enable success, it keeps people trapped in poverty and a mindset of helplessness.
I come from Australia where the social welfare system has similarly degraded (Though not as bad as the US), and there are increasingly more dehumanizing aspects in engaging with the system just to receive a below-subsistence amount.
This article highlights one aspect of such disincentives, but I believe the problem is deeper and more systemic.
It serves to have an underclass that politicians can dump on, it seems.
I routinely go to specialists for things I don't need to, because I make enough money that it's better than waiting for the issue to go away on its own.
Now imagine expanding that to the entire country, when they don't have skin in the game.
It takes awhile for people to change their view. If you come from a society that has for thousands of years said women couldn’t do jobs like be a lawyer as well as men, it’s not crazy that it would take you 40 years to figure out that wasn’t true.
It’s not a bad foundation when it comes to something like what we’re discussing, allocation of capital by professional investors in the medical space. They’re pretty close to homo economicus, but they’re still human so they still err.
If behavioural economics or political economics were taught instead, anything with models that have explanatory power it would be viewed as lefty and revolutionary, and that would really upset donors. Consequently we are stuck with homo oeconomicus.