-
Recent entries
Notifications
Search
Quotations
"In a country where the sole employer is the State, opposition means death by slow starvation. The old principle: who does not work shall not eat, has been replaced by a new one: who does not obey shall not eat."
Attributed to Leon Trotsky 1879-1940 (from The Oxford Book of Political Quotations)
Review
"A splendid book. It's a devastating critique of the welfare state. A page-turner, yet also extensively sourced. Demonstrates how attempts to achieve good intentions have led to horrible results -- increasing crime and violence, worsened conditions of the very poor, an extraordinary deterioration in the quality and character of British life.
Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize-winner.
-
Read The Book
Categories
- Additional resources and material (1)
- Behaviour & Crime (112)
- Blog (17)
- Care for the elderly (15)
- Charity (14)
- Comment on links (1)
- Education (177)
- European Union (7)
- Foreign aid (12)
- Further research (2)
- General (76)
- Healthcare and the NHS (237)
- Home education (8)
- Housing (41)
- Inequality (3)
- Media, including BBC bias (50)
- News (1)
- Off the subject (23)
- Overtraining (1)
- Parenting (98)
- Pensions (31)
- Politics (107)
- Poverty and inequality (2)
- Public sector unions (2)
- Recommended reading (3)
- Reform (76)
- Reviews (10)
- Synopsis (1)
- Tax and growth (43)
- Unemployment (24)
- Waste in public services (70)
- Welfare before the welfare state (12)
- Welfare benefits (212)
- welfare in the ancient world (1)
- Work on the new book (13)
Before the welfare state
-
The Greycoat Hospital
The Greycoat Hospital was once a workhouse. It has since been a hospital and a school. It has a very long welfare history. It has now been taken over by the state.
-
The Greycoat Hospital
-
Education and State
Recommended Links
- Adam Smith Institute
- Adam Smith Institute blog
- Belief in Britain
- Biased BBC
- Black Alliance for Educational Options
- Blithering Bunny
- Bristol Community Family Trust
- Burning Your Money
- Cafe Hayek
- Cato Institute
- Centre for the New Europe
- Choices in education (USA)
- Civitas
- Civitas blog
- Conservative Home
- Friendly Societies Research
- Globalisation Institute
- Iain Dale for North Norfolk
- Institute for Economic Affairs
- Institute for Fiscal Studies
- James Hamilton
- Learn Liberty
- Liberte (French)
- Lithuanian Free Market Institute
- Ludwig Von Mises Institute
- Marie Curie Cancer Care
- National Center for Policy Analysis
- NHS Blog Doctor
- Once more unto the breach
- Pensions Policy Institute
- Reason
- Reform
- Samizdata.net
- Social Affairs Unit
- Stephen Pollard's Blog
- Techstation
- The Cato Institute
- The E. G. West Centre
- The First Post
- The Heritage Foundation
- Thomas Sowell
- Tim Worsthall
- Town Hall
- Walter Williams
- Winston Smith
Licence
Stats
The story of the broken window which every politician, political pundit and, come to that, member of the voting public should know
This is the ‘broken windows’ fallacy as superbly described by its originator, the French economist, Frédéric Bastiat. (From the Library of Economics and Liberty website.) 1.6 Have you ever been witness to the fury of that solid citizen, James Goodfellow,*1 when … Continue reading
A few questions about measuring inequality
I have been reading and listening to great deal about inequality, happiness, poverty and related things recently. Here are a few questions: 1. What is included and left out of the famous Gini coefficient? Is it before or after adjustment for:- … Continue reading
Sweden, inequality and the unreliable Gini.
Income tax for high incomes is high in Sweden, especially if combined with social security contributions made by the employer. However there is no inheritance tax, as far as I can see. Is it therefore possible that rich people arrange … Continue reading
A mini-questionnaire on inequality
Here is a posting that will appear in three parts on successive days. It is a kind of mini-questionnaire: Consider someone who receives income at the level of the 10th highest percentile of the working population and compare it with … Continue reading
The Spirit Level – “trash social science”
If you want a quick guide what may be misleading about the influential book, The Spirit Level, it worth listening to this interview with Peter Saunders, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Sussex University. This debate is highly important. If it … Continue reading
Italian welfare – a curate’s egg
I have just returned from a visit to Italy where I spoke to quite a lot of interesting people about the welfare state there. I learned too much to put down a fraction of it here. But this, in ultra-brief, … Continue reading
Superb counter-blast against the growing consensus that equal incomes make for happier countries
This is part of a superb counter-blast (see page 4) to the idea – encapsulated in a book called The Spirit Level – that we should aim for more equal societies because they are more cohesive and even happy. The … Continue reading
26 hours to fill in a tax return
This image is, surprisingly, taken from a French website which has an essay about coporate tax rates and also the complexity of the taxes and how long it takes to fill in the forms. The essay seems to be based … Continue reading
There are still high marginal tax rates for the poor
Many of the lowest-paid people in the country and families on middle incomes already pay higher marginal tax rates than millionaires. Now, almost incredibly, they are set to suffer a tax rise next month – unless Chancellor George Osborne acts … Continue reading
The heavy British tax on having an old-fashioned kind of family – a sort that is known to be good for children
Here is an important article about how families with one parent working and the other looking after the children – the old model that worked well – is being more highly taxed in Britain than in other advanced countries. People … Continue reading