China v. the U.S.: China’s share of total world gross domestic product has grown from 3.5 percent in 2000 to just under 17 percent today, while the US has gone from 30 percent to 26 percent. During this same period, China has gone from 6 percent to over 30 percent of total world manufacturing output, while the US has fallen from 25 percent to 17 percent.
Covid update: The parents most reluctant to send their kids back to school in blue cities in the spring of 2021 were black and Hispanic, research has consistently found, not white. And the most organized opposition to school reopening came from teachers’ unions,
The case for turning Social Security into a flat benefit.
House Medicaid reforms graph by graph.
The House reconciliation package will add at least $3.3 trillion to the debt through 2034.
125% of FPL is $19,562.50 for an individual. 150% is $23,475. Biggs seems to want to double these for a couple, but the article is ambiguous on this point.
That’s a big cut from present-day benefits, which are already heavily skewed toward people who contributed the least during their working lifetimes, by a factor of 6.
If we were to reimagine Social Security as Biggs suggests, there would be little justification for a payroll tax. Rather, his flat benefit seems to suggest financing directly out of the general fund.