It's the Economy Stupid

Liberty, over at My Arse from my Elbow, has a draft of a paper she wrote on varying economic policies. It's a long read, but well researched and easy to read. Here's a bried exert of the work in progress:

The Left thinks wealth is natural, and what needs to be explained is poverty. How many articles have you read in issues of Time and Newsweek down the years about the causes of poverty? There is intense investigation into the causes of poverty, as if poverty were not natural. How can you explain it? Would it not be wonderful to figure out the answer, .What is the cause of poverty?. Because then we could make more poverty.

Terrific. That is the wrong question. The important question is: What are the causes of wealth? That question was not asked until very late in human history, in 1776. The answer to it has somehow not been learned by a large part of the political class. [1]

As we go about comparing different strategies for tackling poverty we must ask ourselves two important questions:

How do we define poverty?
What is our measure of success?

If we define poverty by a hard number- an amount of income per year – then we must ask if and how that number might change year to year and what it includes (unearned income etc.). We also must define how we may compare this number country to country – beyond exchange rate, are there other factors to consider?

She had even opened it up for debate here. Like I said, well worth the read. So go read!! Why are you still here? Go read NOW!!!