How deserving are the poor

How Deserving Are the Poor? How Deserving Are the Poor? Bryan Caplan Dep’t of Economics George Mason University Why Do You Need My Support in the First Place? Situation Good Reason Bad Reason Your fri.

How Deserving Are the Poor?

Bryan Caplan Dep’t of Economics George Mason University

Why Do You Need My Support in

the First Place?

Situation Good Reason Bad Reason

Your friend asks you

to pay for his lunch.

“I was just mugged.” “I already spent my

whole paycheck on beer.”

Your girlfriend misses

your birthday. “My car and phone both broke down.” “I forgot.”

Co-worker asks you to

cover for him so he

can go home early.

“I have the flu.” “I want to play

Skyrim.”

The Key Difference

• If there are reasonable steps the person

could take – or could have taken – to

avoid the problem.

• Examples of reasonable steps:

– Your friend didn’t have to spend all his money

on beer.

– Your girlfriend could have put your birthday on her calendar.

– Your co-worker could wait to play Skyrim.

Application: The Deserving and

Undeserving Poor

• The deserving poor: those who can’t take – and couldn’t

have taken – reasonable steps to avoid poverty

• The undeserving poor: those who can take – or could

have taken – reasonable steps to avoid poverty

• Examples of “reasonable steps”:

– Work full-time, even if the best job you can get isn’t fun.

– Spend your money on food and shelter before getting cigarettes and cable t.v.

– Use contraception if you can’t afford a child.

• Test: If you wouldn’t accept an excuse from a friend, it’s probably not reasonable

Who’s Deserving and

Undeserving?

• Good examples of the “deserving poor”:

– Low-skilled workers in the Third World

– Children of poor or irresponsible parents

– The severely handicapped

• Greatly overrated examples of the

“deserving poor”:

– Healthy adults in the First World

– Everyone who used to be a healthy adult in the First World

The Undeserving

• Healthy adults in the First World.

– Low-skilled full-time U.S jobs pay more than enough for people to support themselves

percentile of world income distribution

– Even Americans below the poverty line enjoy many amazing luxuries

• Everyone who used to be a healthy adult in the

First World.

– Elderly could have saved more

– Sick could have bought insurance

First World Problems

Why Talk About Desert, I

• If you oppose any government spending

on the poor, you should still consider

desert when you give to charity.

• If you have a more expansive view of

government, there’s still a big difference

between forcing people to help (a) starving children and (b) irresponsible adults.

• Ever said, “It’s your mess, you clean it

up”?

Why Talk About Desert, II

• Most important lesson: First

World governments’ priorities

are upside-down

• Third World has hundreds of

millions of deserving poor, but:

– They get near-zero help from

First World governments.

– It’s illegal for them to move to the

First World and accept a job from

a willing employer

• Even if we owe charity to no

one, the least we can do is

stop kicking the world’s

deserving poor when they’re

down