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PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   3204 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 16, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I recently read this article, which seems to have awoken some latent bleeding heart in me. As a result, it’s got me thinking about wealth redistribution, whence the following questions:

  • What are some of the best “utilitarian” arguments against greater wealth redistribution in America? (When I say “utilitarian”, I don’t actually mean calculating out the utils involved— but I do mean arguments other than moral ones like “people ought be able to retain the results of their labor” (which argument I am particularly sympathetic to around tax season).) What are estimates of the argmax of the Laffer curve? Is there an inverse relationship between “innovation” and income tax rate that might explain why America is far more of a tech hub than Sweden? That sort of argument is what I would be looking for.
  • Are there any low-overhead charities out there where you can mostly-directly send money to poorer people? Preferably with options to filter by criteria such as number of kids, marital status, etc.

I understand that this post betrays a real naïveté in both economic knowledge and worldly experience— so I’ll admit that I’m a decent bit embarrassed about making it, but I figure that a Small-Scale Question Sunday thread is the best place to ask this.

One thing I would encourage you to consider is that for the stated financial situation ($30K for a family of four), they are already eligible for substantial government subsidies in the form of food assistance, cash via EITC, heating and cooling assistance (in many states), Medicaid, and more. Perhaps it would be best to think of this less as a merely directional problem, but to imagine what you think a family with one person working 40 hours/week at $15/hour should be entitled to in the form of subsidies. From there, you can determine whether you think that's met with the current numbers or not.

I would also note that the article includes some pieces that I think are either sloppy or sleight of hand:

This is actually pretty close to the experience. It’s telling that Scott thinks the problem with a lease comes only from credit issues - a pretty bottom-barrel ford leases for 300-400 a month. For a person who makes 30,000-40000k a year, that’s something like 10-15% of their income, before we talk about insurance; couple that with the fact that you can’t squeak by on liability-only insurance in most leases, and we are already into a prohibitively expensive range.

Wait a second! I drive a little Toyota product that I leased new and then financed afterwards, and the expense has consistently been under $300/month. For that price, I'm not driving something unreliable and old, but a Toyota that I got new, have now possessed for 8 years, and will pay off next year. This may seem like I'm quibbling about marginal differences, but when someone consistently makes small exaggerations that I find noticeable, I start to question whether they're really as financially fastidious as their tone implies.

To put a finer point on it, a $10K car financed at 5% for 60 months gives a payment under $200 per month. A quick little search shows me that I can get a low mileage Honda Civic for around that price. I don't see a good reason for someone to be going up to 15% of their income on a car.

But there’s other things - liability insurance, as mentioned above, is often your only option that makes sense - if your car costs $2000, paying an extra $50-100 per month for high-deductible doesn’t add up; you are still $1000 out of pocket to cover the deductible in the event you need to use it.

I know this is going to be one of those "high cost of being poor" things, but these numbers seem bonkers to me. I'm well aware that insurance costs vary, but having that high of a deductible for that kind of cost implies moving violations or major credit issues, not merely, "I don't have much money". I just reupped my insurance the other day and it's about $45/month total for the car mentioned above, with high liability insurance and a $500 deductible. Again, maybe this truly is unavoidable, but I find that I am once again questioning whether the author has baseline financial competence.

I freely confess that I do not feel very charitable to the American poor, precisely because I think they objectively receive large sums of money from governments and tend to piss away what they have on things like lottery tickets or obviously idiotic modifications to cars. I'm aware of the objections from progressives, I'm aware that the model citizen poor person that is truly just unlucky exists, but the current state of affairs does not suggest to me that increasing redistribution will tend to make the world a better place.

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