How Deserving Are the Poor?
Bryan Caplan
Dep’t of Economics
George Mason University
Why Do You Need My Support in
the First Place?
Situation
Good Reason
Bad Reason
Your friend asks you
to pay for his lunch.
“I was just mugged.”
“I already spent my
whole paycheck on
beer.”
Your girlfriend misses
your birthday.
“My car and phone
both broke down.”
“I forgot.”
Co-worker asks you to “I have the flu.”
cover for him so he
can go home early.
“I want to play
Skyrim.”
The Key Difference
• If there are reasonable steps the person
could take – or could have taken – to
avoid the problem.
• Examples of reasonable steps:
– Your friend didn’t have to spend all his money
on beer.
– Your girlfriend could have put your birthday on
her calendar.
– Your co-worker could wait to play Skyrim.
Application: The Deserving and
Undeserving Poor
• The deserving poor: those who can’t take – and couldn’t
have taken – reasonable steps to avoid poverty.
• The undeserving poor: those who can take – or could
have taken – reasonable steps to avoid poverty.
• Examples of “reasonable steps”:
– Work full-time, even if the best job you can get isn’t fun.
– Spend your money on food and shelter before getting cigarettes
and cable t.v.
– Use contraception if you can’t afford a child.
• Test: If you wouldn’t accept an excuse from a friend, it’s
probably not reasonable.
Who’s Deserving and
Undeserving?
• Good examples of the “deserving poor”:
– Low-skilled workers in the Third World
– Children of poor or irresponsible parents
– The severely handicapped
• Greatly overrated examples of the
“deserving poor”:
– Healthy adults in the First World
– Everyone who used to be a healthy adult in
the First World
The Undeserving
• Healthy adults in the First World.
– Low-skilled full-time U.S. jobs pay more than enough
for people to support themselves.
– Average janitor + maid income>>poverty line; 96th
percentile of world income distribution.
– Even Americans below the poverty line enjoy many
amazing luxuries.
• Everyone who used to be a healthy adult in the
First World.
– Elderly could have saved more.
– Sick could have bought insurance.
First World Problems
Why Talk About Desert, I
• If you oppose any government spending
on the poor, you should still consider
desert when you give to charity.
• If you have a more expansive view of
government, there’s still a big difference
between forcing people to help (a) starving
children and (b) irresponsible adults.
• Ever said, “It’s your mess, you clean it
up”?
Why Talk About Desert, II
• Most important lesson: First
World governments’ priorities
are upside-down.
• Third World has hundreds of
millions of deserving poor, but:
– They get near-zero help from
First World governments.
– It’s illegal for them to move to the
First World and accept a job from
a willing employer.
• Even if we owe charity to no
one, the least we can do is
stop kicking the world’s
deserving poor when they’re
down.