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I am no fan of “tradition,” but I am a fan of logic and common sense. You are correct to talk about incentives:

As a general rule, when we tax something, we get less of it. So when we tax work, we get less work.

On the flip side, when means tested welfare programs have benefits cliffs that cut off when someone gets a job, there is no incentive to do so.

Nothing about this makes any sense.

To the extent possible, we must lower taxes on incomes (and production) and remove “benefits cliffs” that trap people on welfare.

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Very promising discussion. Probably means we need to take a rhetorical meat ax to the Great Society, or selected elements of it -- based on a serious comparison of applicable metrics before and after.

Some of Thomas Sowell's work seems to address this.

We need to re-emphasize TANSTAAFL as a core adage and belief.

Your upward mobility endeavor is why I have been following your posts.

When is your 3rd book due to be published?

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Thanks for the comment. I am seriously thinking of publishing my third book via Substack, if they build the technology to do so. It reaches a bigger audience than standard book publishing, and it is way easier.

So I guess that you can saying that it is being published one post at a time right now.

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