“In continental Europe the minimum wage is between 50 and 60 per cent of average wage (between 40 and 50 in the UK), while in the US it is between 30 and 40 percent.”
“The hypothesis tested is that universal transfer programs should be larger in more proportional electoral systems. Both MFPR and PT report results consistent with this hypothesis”
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“The bottom line seems to be that for OECD countries a measure of proportionality of the electoral system is highly correlated with the amount of government transfers.”
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“There are three “monumental” historical forces that distinguish the US from Europe. The Civil War, the “open frontier” in the west, and the nonexistence of a large and influential Socialist or Communist party.”
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“US courts systematically rejected any legislation that was perceived as anti-business. In doing so they appealed to the principle of protection of private property against government intervention (often the doctrine of freedom of contract was invoked).”
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“The pro-property actions of the courts were influenced both by the US constitution, which was designed by property owners, in part, to protect property from democracy, and by incentives that firms created to influence judges.”
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“The involvement of Courts in social legislation in the US has been a constant feature of the US experience, contrary to that of countries based on the French or German legal tradition.”
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“The open frontier strengthened individualistic feelings and beliefs in equality of opportunities, rather than equality of outcomes. In fact, one may argue that self-selection led to a systematic difference between those Europeans who migrated to the US and those who didn’t.”
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“Redistribution in many contexts is a response to the physical power of the poor and the threat of riot and revolution. Acemoglu and Robinson (1999) argue that democracy in Europe is itself a response to the physical power of the poor.”
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“While America was full of class-related violence in the late 19th century (see Skowronek, 1982), and saw riots in the 1930s and 1960s, American decentralization has generally meant that the US has never had a rebellion that threatened the centers of government.”
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“The fact that the American working class was formed by waves of immigration also contributed to preventing the formation of a European style class consciousness”
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“The Great Depression could have galvanized socialist ideals. However, with the New Deal, Roosevelt and the Democratic party managed to “co-opt” important fringes of the left which might otherwise have strengthened the Socialist party.”
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“The authors of the constitution make it clear in the Federalist papers that they are disturbed by the possibility that in an unfettered democracy ‘measures are too often decided, not according to the rights of the minor party; but by the force of an over-bearing majority.’”
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“As such, they tried to design the constitution to protect ‘private rights’ against factions, even if those factions include the majority of the population.”
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“In the pre-modern era, electoral rules designed by elites customarily attempted to protect property against majoritarian redistribution. However, the big difference is greater American stability which means that 18th century rules are still in effect.”
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“The history of American welfare suggests that enemies of welfare often used race to defeat attempts at redistribution in the post-bellum period.”
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“Luttmer (2001) finds that support for welfare is higher among people who live near to many welfare recipients who are of the same race. Conversely, support for welfare is lower among people who live near welfare recipients who are of a different race.”
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“States that are more ethnically fragmented spend a smaller fraction of their budget on social services and productive public goods, and more on crime prevention”
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“People in big cities appear to be much more pro-welfare, probably because people in those cities are more likely to live around the poor.”
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White “people who have had blacks over to dinner are indeed more likely to support increased welfare”
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“There is a strong negative relationship between the generosity of the [Aid to Families with Dependent Children] program and the share of the state that is black—the raw correlation is 49 percent.”
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“70 percent of West Germans believe that people are poor because of society, not laziness. However, 70 percent of Americans in response to the same question said that people are poor because of laziness”
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“While more Europeans get unhappier as inequality in their country rises, American happiness is unrelated to inequality in their state of residence.”
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“American taste for retribution might have come from the frontier and the need to protect goods when property rights are uncertain. Alternatively, it is possible that two world wars, and awful experiences with fascist regimes, have discredited vengeful punishment in Europe.”
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“People who have themselves risen from poverty are more likely to think that the poor can do it as well, and therefore are only on welfare because they are cheating the system.”
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“There is an extremely strong relationship between supporting capital punishment and opposing welfare in the US.”
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“More religious Americans and Protestant Americans are more likely to oppose increased spending on welfare. Protestantism is also linked to the belief that success results from effort.”
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“Sixty percent of American respondents say that the poor are lazy. Twenty-six percent of Europeans say that the poor are lazy.”
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“The upheaval in continental Europe over the last century has meant that there were no durable institutions which could protect property against popular demand for redistribution.”
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“Racial fragmentation in the US and the disproportionate representation of minorities among the poor has clearly played a major role in stopping rich-poor redistribution within the US, and, indeed, across the world racial cleavages seem to serve as a barrier to redistribution.”
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“Our bottom line is that Americans redistribute less than Europeans because the majority believes that redistribution favors racial minorities”
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End of conversation
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