Government: Making the poor poorer

Stephen Moore at the American Spectator has a must-read editorial, "Government Makes the Poor Poorer". this is an inconvenient TRUTH which the left would rather you not consider. For example:

Economist ‎Don Boudreaux of George Mason University unmasked two such policies. One is trade protectionism. Trade barriers raise prices and “act as a regressive tax” on Americans, Boudreaux explains. They also stunt the very innovation process that makes goods and services widely available to people at affordable prices to begin with. Think about who the consumers are that shop for those everyday low prices at Wal-Mart. It’s not Hillary Clinton.

Minimum wage clearly fits into this category as well. In every other industry, Boudreaux notes, when something is more expensive, we buy less of it. Why do some economists think that isn’t so when it comes to buying labor? Especially for the young and the lowest skilled, minimum wage becomes a toll that prevents many from entering the work force and gaining the skills that can make a low income or middle class worker a high income worker. This is so obvious that one wonders why liberals keep championing the minimum wage cause.

Read the entire article. There is MUCH more.

One of my favorites:

Arguably the program that has set back upward income mobility ‎for the poor the most is the government school system in inner cities. Every study finds abysmal educational outcomes and even unsafe environments for schoolchildren despite cities spending upward of $20,000 per child. In Catholic inner-city schools, these same kids could and should be receiving a better education at half the cost. Yet liberals who champion the poor oppose school choice programs that would raise educational achievement and future earnings. 

At the end, Moore makes a point which libertarians should be trumpeting as the only ideology which does this:

These examples merely scratch the surface of scores of governmental polices that are regressive. Could it be that the gridlock and polarization in Washington would be ended by a bipartisan reform movement to scout out and remove laws and rules that hurt those at the bottom of the income scale the most? One universal goal that we should all agree on and aspire to is equality of opportunity — which these laws squelch.

This should not be a difficult case to make for libertarians or fiscally conservative Republicans. When people ask why we should have smaller government, the answer should be loud and clear that government is killing opportunity equality in the cradle. Giving the poor people money doesn't make up for all of the opportunities we are denying them.