Redistributing poverty.

• Author: Mangu-Ward, Katherine
• Position: Data - Brief article

In theory, redistribution of wealth is supposed to benefit the least fortunate. In practice, it doesn't necessarily work out that way. In a new study, Matthew Ladner of the Goldwater Institute and Paul J. Gessig of the Rio Grande Foundation crunch census data for the 1990s and find that the poor did much better in states with low taxes and low spending than in states with higher taxes. Big-spending, high-taxing states saw increases in poverty rates, despite a national economic boom. On average, big spenders in Alaska...