Category: poverty

The sad, sad story of the UNICEF Child Poverty Report and its critics

~ MilesCorak ~ 9 Comments

David Morely, UNICEF Canada’s Executive Director, has just issued a bold challenge. “It is clearly time for Canada to prioritize children when planning budgets and spending our nation’s resources, even in tough economic times,” says a press release announcing the publication of a report on child poverty.

In fact, the UNICEF Innocenti Report Card released today is the 10th in a regular series on child poverty in rich countries, each report hitting the headlines every second year or so.

Sadly, when it comes to discussions of child poverty kick-started by these reports there are two things that are not new: the conclusions; and the reaction of pundits and many policy makers. I say “sadly” because the two are not linked, and public policy discussion is not the better.

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“What the U.S. can Learn from Britain’s War on Poverty”

~ MilesCorak ~ 2 Comments

In 1999 Tony Blair pledged to end child poverty in the United Kingdom within 20 years.

There were three pillars to this pledge: (1) making work pay; (2) increasing income support to families with children whether or not parents are working; and (3) investing more in children.

Jane Waldfogel of Columbia University examines each of these pillars in a presentation to Cornell University earlier this year. She also discusses the results of these policies and the lessons for the United States.

Waldfogel’s one hour presentation is a summary of  the major messages in her book Britain’s War on Poverty published by the Russell Sage Foundation.

How to give children the vote

~ MilesCorak ~ 17 Comments

The right to vote is an inherent right of all citizens, and the first and most important marker of the capacity to participate in the setting of social priorities.

Children should be given that right from birth. But until they reach the age of majority it should be exercised by proxy with the custodial parent or parents given an extra vote for every child under their guardianship.

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Three policies to promote the dignity and rights of children

~ MilesCorak ~ Leave a comment

On April 19th 2012 I made a presentation called “Promoting the dignity and rights of children” to the Dignity for All campaign summit held in Ottawa Canada. The presentation offered three policy recommendations to the Federal government that if undertaken would improve the well-being of children and respect their rights as citizens.

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The ten trends that have shaped the last century, and that will shape the next

~ MilesCorak ~ 1 Comment

Ten forces have defined how we have lived our lives during the last one hundred years, but the “rights” revolution is at their core and will shape how we live the next hundred years.

Daron Acemoglu, the MIT labour economist and co-author of Why Nations Fail, begins a recently released paper on a very personal note: “I write this as I await the birth of my second son.”

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Charles Murray, a Libertarian who worries about America coming apart along the seams of class

~ MilesCorak ~ 8 Comments

The major point in Charles Murray‘s book—Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010—is that the United States “is coming apart at the seams—not ethnic seams, but the seams of class.”

You can watch him summarize the major messages of his book in this February 14th interview hosted by the TVO program The Agenda.

The book has proved to be instantly provocative. Toward the end of this interview, at about 13 minutes and 50 seconds, Murray states: “I don’t do solutions very well.”

So why all the buzz?

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