Mike Tanner — Why Does Poverty Persist?

Alex Aragona speaks with Mike Tanner as he explores the factors that contribute to the persistence of poverty, and different policy recommendations that can help alleviate it. References from Episode 73 with Mike Tanner Mike Tanner is the author of Going for Broke: Deficits, Debt, and the Entitlement Crisis, Leviathan on the Right: How the Rise of Big Government Conservatism Threatens Our Freedom and Our Future, and The Inclusive Economy: How to Bring Wealth to America’s Poor. All titles are hyperlinked and available for purchase on Amazon Canada. You can read more about the United States’ government spending on anti-poverty policies and programs at the University of Michigan’s Poverty Solutions website here.   Mike likens the final step of self-actualization in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to the policy goal of self-sufficiency for welfare programs. An explanation of the Hierarchy can be accessed here in a study by Robert J. Taormina and Jennifer H. Gao.  Articles by the Cato Institute and the Foundation for Economic Education discuss how poverty traps are a fixture of the welfare system (organizations hyperlinked).   Here is a study by Elaine Maag, C. Eugene Steuerle, Ritadhi Chakravarti, and Caleb Quakenbush on how marginal tax rates are at a high point for those who leave welfare and take their first job.  Mike references a poll conducted by the Cato Institute on whether the government should prioritize welfare spending or economic growth, which can be found at this link.  This article by the Foundation for Economic Education on the Davis-Bacon Act features Walter Williams’ congressional opinion on the union labour as well as Miles Allgood’s sponsorship of Act, both of which were quoted in the podcast.  Mike looks to William Julius Wilson’s theory on “marrigiablility” and how that may be impacted by criminal convictions. This theory was developed in his work, The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy, and is available for purchase on Amazon Canada here.  Here is an investigation by the United States Department of Justice into the Ferguson Police Department following the murder of Michael Brown. The report investigates topics Mike touches on in the podcast, including how fines from parking violations can be a large source of revenue for the police. Here is the Wikipedia article on the murder of Eric Garner that was mentioned by Mike during the episode. Here is a link to an education watchdog’s cross-sectional study of the mathematical and reading proficiencies of students hailing from different neighbourhoods in Oakland that Mike mentions briefly this episode.  To complement Mike’s discussion on zoning, The Local Government Commission released a report on single-family zoning and affordable housing supply in California and can be accessed through this link. A local news release on Former Labour Secretary Robert Reich’s preventative housing development efforts in Berkeley can be found here. Here is an entry by Dean Karlan, Aishwarya Lakshmi Ratan, and Jonathan Zinman in The Review of Income and Wealth on how inaccessible banking may be a barrier to reducing poverty.