In a post today on their blog, the Cato Institute, a libertarian "non-profit public research foundation" (their words, not mine), contends that things aren't as bad as they seem with the US economy and poverty. Citing a new report from the US Census Bureau, Cato contends:

It flies in the face of reality to argue that the major indicators of economic well being in America are trending downward in some sort of crisis that demands sweeping government intervention.

The looks at several different categories of people and statistics, primarily income and poverty. In the words of Steve at The Austrian Economists, the Cato report concludes the following:

Bottom line: the middle class is shrinking because it's getting richer, median household income is up, the poverty rate is the same as 2006 and lower than 1997, and the number of Americans without health insurance is down slightly from 2006 and lower than it was a decade ago.

Steve and the Cato Institute seem to leave out one spectacularly important piece of the equation: the individual.

They observe that since 2006, only 12.5% of American live below the poverty line, which is better than the 13.3% that did so in 1997. However, the report says that during the period from 2001-2003, "Nearly one-third of the population had at least one spell of poverty lasting 2 or more months during the 3-year period from 2001 to 2003." Yet they suggest this report is "spoiling the pity party" held by those they view as opponents of limited government. This doesn't take into effect how much the cost of living has gone up (consider gas price increases since 2000).

As someone would like to see limited government, I am irritated by the crass elitism thrown around. It's easy to shrug off 12.5% of the American population if you've never gone without health insurance. If you have never had to live check to check and deal with having your utilities turned off because you don't have the money to pay the bills, then it is no stretch to shrug off the nearly one-third of people who have had to deal with poverty for 2 months or more during a 3-year period. Two months or more of poverty!

I suppose some of what I have written makes me sounds like those about whom Cato says "Their solution is always to restrict trade and immigration and launch expensive new programs to alleviate the obvious misery."

I don't wish to restrict immigration. I don't want to launch expensive new programs. But I do know what it is like to lose your job. I do know what it is like to go without health insurance for a long time (years, not days). I also have a big TV, a nice car, and eat out a few times each month, so I am aware that my wife and I aren't hovering below the poverty line either.

Still, it's calloused and immoral to shrug off things as getting better while 30 million or so people suffer to make ends meet. There is clearly a lack of Christian love and justice coming from the Cato Institute and its friends. Maybe they should start there.