As P. J. O’Rourke says, speaking of something like a total of $200,000(?) per poor person spent by the American welfare system, it’s a flabbergasting phenomenon that appears to be real: You can’t fix poverty by giving people money.
I’d be curious about how much of that is going for administrative costs to people who haven’t taken a vow of near-poverty themselves, assuming that the number is accurate. Is it per year?
Eliezer implies it’s pretty much all administrative costs. But it’s not clear that this is a fair measure “giving people money.” European welfare systems are less resentful of their recipients and more focused on direct transfers. I’m sure that they are more efficient than the US system, though I don’t have any numbers. A stipend that was not means-tested could be more efficient still. A negative income tax might not need to be more complicated than the income tax system itself. The US version is not terribly complicated by income tax standards, but I think a lot of people fail to exploit it out of ignorance. That’s a type of inefficiency that doesn’t show up in this kind of number.
I’d be curious about how much of that is going for administrative costs to people who haven’t taken a vow of near-poverty themselves, assuming that the number is accurate. Is it per year?
Eliezer implies it’s pretty much all administrative costs. But it’s not clear that this is a fair measure “giving people money.” European welfare systems are less resentful of their recipients and more focused on direct transfers. I’m sure that they are more efficient than the US system, though I don’t have any numbers. A stipend that was not means-tested could be more efficient still. A negative income tax might not need to be more complicated than the income tax system itself. The US version is not terribly complicated by income tax standards, but I think a lot of people fail to exploit it out of ignorance. That’s a type of inefficiency that doesn’t show up in this kind of number.