India is expected to see a rise in its <keyword id="6354852" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="official">official</keyword> count of the poor in the country, thanks to the Government’s efforts to redefine the parameters of poverty, something that had created a huge ruckus in the previous UPA2 regime. The government has decided to review the poverty benchmark before it unrolls a comprehensive plan aimed at tackling the problem.<br />
 <br /> For this to tke effect, it has set up a task force, headed by <keyword id="2665691" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Niti-Aayog">NITI Aayog</keyword> <keyword id="171576" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="vice-chairman">Vice-Chairman</keyword> <keyword id="6366253" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Arvind-Panagariya">Arvind Panagariya</keyword>, to define poverty and prepare a road map to alleviate it, as per an Economic Times report. <br />
 <br /> Considering that the government has not officially accepted the threshold recommended by the C <keyword id="105900" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Rangarajan-committee">Rangarajan Committee</keyword>, it is likely that the expenditure level to classify citizens below and above the poverty line will be raised. The Rangarajan committee had recommended setting the threshold at Rs 32 per person per day for rural and Rs 47 for urban poor, compared with the existing levels of Rs 27 and Rs 40, said ET. <br />
<br /> The Rangarajan committee’s suggestion that it was possible for a person to survive on Rs 32 a day was ridiculed across the board. The Rangarajan committee was set up by the <keyword id="46913" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Planning-commission">Planning Commission</keyword> under the Congress-led government to review a methodology suggested by <keyword id="6365396" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Economist">economist</keyword> <keyword id="107124" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Suresh-Tendulkar">Suresh Tendulkar</keyword> that had pegged the number of poor in India at 269 million. Rangarajan's formula saw it rising to 337 million, a number that found few takers because of the Rs 32 a day limit. <br />
<br />
The new task force report is likely to be in place by the end of June. "The 14-member taskforce, apart from the special invitees if any, has been asked to develop a working definition of poverty and to prepare a roadmap for its elimination," a senior government official told ET. <br />
<br /> "The other mandate of the taskforce is to suggest strategies and anti-poverty programmes, including reforms of the existing ones."Key members of the taskforce include <keyword id="105648" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Bibek-Debroy">Bibek Debroy</keyword>, who is a permanent member of the NITI Aayog, social sector experts <keyword id="276856" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Rathin-Roy">Rathin Roy</keyword> and <keyword id="219461" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Surjit-Bhalla">Surjit Bhalla</keyword>, and <keyword id="143601" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Chief-Statistician">Chief Statistician</keyword> TCA Anant. <br />
<br /> The secretaries of five central ministries, <keyword id="174274" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="director-general">director-general</keyword> of the <keyword id="86474" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Unique-Identification-Authority-of-India">Unique Identification Authority of India</keyword> and two advisers from the Aayog too are part of the panel. The constitution of this central taskforce comes a month and half after <keyword id="71" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Prime-Minister">Prime Minister</keyword> <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword>, who is the <keyword id="6364480" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Chairman">chairman</keyword> of the NITI Aayog, convened the first meeting of its governing council in February and decided to set up teams in states to eliminate poverty.<br />
<br />
ET said, according to the official, the central taskforce will ensure that reports from states are available by June 15 and, thereafter, will process these reports to prepare its own report within two weeks. "Once we come out with the definition of poverty, the same would be used to estimate poverty in the country," the official said.

There will be many more poor people in India this year
than before. Here’s why

<br /> With the <keyword id="6360789" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Modi-Government">Modi government</keyword>’s pet project <keyword id="1929810" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Digital-India">Digital India</keyword> taking wings, India aims to capture at least 5% to 6% of the overall global IoT (internet of things) industry worth $300 billion. JS Deepak, Secretary of Department of Electronics and IT noted that the country plans to do so in the next five years. <br /> "A policy framework around internet of things is in consultation stage. As per reports global IoT industry would be USD 300 billion by 2020 globally. The idea of IoT policy is that India should have 5-6 per cent share at least of global industry," said Deepak at the IoT Summit organized by industry body <keyword id="6358345" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="CII">CII</keyword>.<br />
	 <br />
	He added that the new policy intends to create $15 billion domestic industry by 2020. It should be noted that IoT industry will facilitate smooth sharing of data via internet, thus becoming a game changer for several key sectors including healthcare.<br />
	<br />
	"IoT can be a game changer. It can save lot of power. We see street lights being on in small cities and towns even during day. With help of technology such lights can be automatically turned off which can result in huge saving for the power sector,” said Babul Supriyo, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation said at the event. <br />
	The NaMo government has already prepared a blueprint for the IoT industry, beginning from the roadmap for M2M (machine-to-machine) communication.
<br />

Another boost to PM Modi’s Digital India, Govt aims to
achieve 5% of global IoT industry by 2020

<br /> Prime Minister <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword>’s one of the most ambitious dreams is to establish 100 Smart Cities across India. To realise his dream, the state governments and other stakeholders have started taking baby steps. They have chalked out the criteria for the selection and ranking of cities hoping to build ‘a new Chicago every year’ in the country by agreeing to implement innovative financing models and urban governance reforms.<br />
 <br /> These agreements were reached following intense discussions at the two-day ‘Consultation Workshop of state governments and stakeholders on smart cities.’ The final recommendations were presented at the concluding ‘Plenary Session,’ which was chaired by <keyword id="6721" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="babul-Supriyo">Babul Supriyo</keyword>, minister of state for urban development and housing &amp; urban poverty alleviation.<br />
 <br /> The state governments and other stakeholders have suggested that the basic eligibility conditions to participate in the ‘<keyword id="513113" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="smart-city">Smart City</keyword> Challenge’ competition should include a city development strategy, progress under <keyword id="2312336" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Swachh-Bharat-Mission">Swachh Bharat Mission</keyword>, timely payment of salaries to municipal staff, information and grievance redressal mechanism as well as e-News Letter.<br />
 <br />
They’ve also added that the ranking of these cities will be based on parameters such as: self-financing ability (25% weightage), institutional systems and capacities (25%), existing service levels and committed plan of action for three years (25%), past track record in implementing reforms (15%) and the quality of vision document (10%).<br />
 <br />
Indian states have suggested two sets of reforms separately for small and metropolitan cities, land monetisation, quick progress towards e-governance and online service delivery, integrated geographic information system (GIS)-based master plans, policy reforms, fixed tenures for mayors and municipal officials, improving revenues through 100% collection of taxes and user charges etc.<br />
 <br />
In order to enable the state governments to take up the challenges under smart cities initiative, Minister of States Babul Supriyo has urged the state authorities to devolve necessary functions, funds and functionaries to the urban local bodies.<br />

Indian States Gear Up For An Era Of ‘Smart Cities’

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>For decades, floating cities have been part of a utopian vision to build societies that operate independently of government. </li><li>Organizations like the Seasteading Institute aim to create peaceful, self-sufficient communities at sea - but they've faced multiple obstacles.</li><li>In April, a United Nations <span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/un-floating-city-housing-hurricanes-2019-4">roundtable</a> entertained an idea for a new kind of floating city that could address issues such as <strong>rising sea levels and overcrowding in urban areas. </strong></span></li><li><span><strong>The vision is part of what designer Bjarke Ingels calls "utopian pragmatism," or generating grand designs that can be built in practical ways.</strong></span></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>It's been about 13 centuries since Homer envisioned a <span>mythical floating city surrounding by "unbreakable bronze." The idea has generally remained the province of myth since then - until last month.</span></p><p><span>In April, the United Nations <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/un-floating-city-housing-hurricanes-2019-4">hosted a roundtable</a> to discuss a proposal for a floating community called Oceanix City that </span>could <span>withstand floods, tsunamis, and Category 5 hurricanes. The project, which hails from architect Bjarke Ingels and the design firm Oceanix, consists of a collection of hexagonal platforms that combine to form six villages, each with around 1,800 residents.</span></p><p><span><span style="font-weight: 400;">The concept arose from a desire to address rising sea levels and land constraints in major cities. </span></span><span><span style="font-weight: 400;">In <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/dsg/statement/2019-04-03/deputy-secretary-generals-remarks-high-level-roundtable-sustainable-floating-cities-prepared-for-delivery">a statement at the roundtable</a>, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed called the floating city "part of our new arsenal of tools" to address issues like poverty, climate change, disease outbreaks, and the mass movements of migrants and refugees. </span></span></p><p><span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/san-jose-floating-apartments-homeless-2019-3">Silicon Valley's largest city wants to house the homeless in floating apartments</a></em></span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span>"This is not a luxury concept. It's an essential concept," Thomas Goreau, the president of the Global Coral Reef Alliance, said at the roundtable. </span></span></p><p>That's a change from the way designers and developers thought about floating cities in previous decades. Instead of a utopian vision of libertarian societies without taxes or government regulation, the idea of a floating city today is emerging as a practical solution to the world's most pressing challenges - and it's closer than ever to getting built. </p><h2><strong>The dream of floating communities</strong></h2><p><span>Floating cities draw inspiration from a time-honored structure, the houseboat, which has evolved from <a href="http://seattlefloatinghomes.org/history/">shabby buildings built on rafts</a> to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/floating-home-withstands-category-4-hurricanes-2019-2">hurricane-resistant fortresses</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/floating-tiny-home-assembled-in-one-day-2019-3">light, prefabricated homes</a> that can be assembled in a day. </span></p><p><span>In the Netherlands, <a href="https://psmag.com/environment/are-the-floating-houses-of-the-netherlands-a-solution-against-the-rising-seas">floating homes</a> have become a ubiquitous solution to flooding. The nation has even experimented with <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/1321690/floating-apartment-complex-goes-flow-rising-sea-levels">floating apartment complexes</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/world-first-first-floating-dairy-farm-rotterdam-2018-9">dairy farms</a> that bob on the water.</span></p><p><span>But building an entire floating city remains an unprecedented challenge.</span></p><p>For the most part, those who have attempted the feat have aimed to create autonomous societies that operate independently of government. </p><p><span>In the early 1970s, luxury real-estate mogul Michael Oliver attempted to build a floating island off the coast of Tonga in order to create his own self-sufficient society. The planned community, which he called the <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/republic-of-minerva">Republic of Minerva</a>, was supposed to have its own currency and do away with taxes and welfare. But the project was squashed by the King of Tonga, who said his nation already possessed the land.</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></span></p><p><span>The concept of a floating utopia didn't die there, though. In 2008, political theorist </span>Patri Friedman teamed up with <span>PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel to form the <a href="https://www.seasteading.org/">Seasteading Institute</a>, a think tank that advocates for the construction of floating cities. Like Oliver, Friedman and Thiel subscribe to <a href="https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian">the libertarian ideology</a> that freedom can be achieved by removing oneself from the strictures of government. </span></p><p><span>"Our goal is to maximize entrepreneurial freedom to create blue jobs to welcome anyone to the Next New World," <a href="https://www.seasteading.org/about/">the organization's website</a> reads. "We are credentialed, qualified, pragmatic idealists who plan to ... create the first nations not to aggress against any people."</span></p><p>Much like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sidewalk-toronto-google-problems-2019-2">Alpahabet's efforts to build a high-tech city</a> in Toronto, the <span>Seasteading Institute views floating cities as testing beds for new ideas. Among the organization's "eight moral imperatives" are plans to enrich the poor, clean the atmosphere, generate autonomous power, and live in balance with nature.</span></p><p><span>These priorities are not unlike those of Oceanix City. At the UN roundtable, the designers described their plan to build an autonomous energy source for the community, </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">produce fresh water sustainably onsite, and achieve zero waste.</span></p><p><span>Instead of </span>high-emitting cars or trucks, Oceanix City would<span> allot space for driverless vehicles and experiment with new technologies such as </span><a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/613255/the-first-commercial-drone-delivery-scheme-in-the-us-is-already-flying/">drone deliveries</a> and <span>pneumatic trash tubes, they said</span><span>. Beneath the surface of the water, aquaponic systems would use fish waste to help fertilize plants, while vertical farms would generate year-round produce. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We're striving toward the highest degree of autonomy," Ingels told Business Insider.</span></p><h2><span>But Oceanix City would be self-sufficient without being fully independent</span></h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span>The design for Oceanix City calls for the floating structures to be bolstered by Biorock - a material with a limestone coating that's three times harder than concrete, but can still be made to float - and moored to the ocean floor. They could be towed to safer locations in the event of a disaster.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span>Though the city still needs funding, the design proposal so far serves as a kind of blueprint for brave investors.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span>"I see this, in many ways, as our Apollo 10 dress rehearsal," said Victor Kisob, the deputy executive director of the UN Human Settlement Programme. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But there are, of course, <a href="https://www.citylab.com/environment/2019/04/floating-cities-climate-change-united-nations-sea-level-rise/586612/">downsides to building a community</a> at sea. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">For one, floating-city projects may find it difficult to secure approval from local governments. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After signing an agreement with French Polynesia in 2016 to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/floating-city-plans-seasteading-institute-peter-thiel-blue-frontiers-2017-12">build a floating city</a> off the coast of Tahiti, for example, the Seasteading Institute learned last year that the government <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/french-polynesia-ends-agreement-with-peter-thiel-seasteading-institute-2018-3">wouldn't be renewing the deal</a>. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the time since the agreement was announced, Tahitian locals had grown wary of a billionaire-backed enterprise taking over nearby land. The government eventually <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/libertarian-peter-thiel-utopia-seasteading-institute-2018-3">issued </a></span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/libertarian-peter-thiel-utopia-seasteading-institute-2018-3">a note on Facebook</a><span> saying the deal was non-binding.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That public wariness reveals another major challenge for the development of floating cities: that the communities could become isolated enclaves for the ultra-rich.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span>Oceanix</span><span> CEO Marc Collins is determined to avoid that scenario. </span></span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span>While presenting his vision at the UN, Collins painted floating cities as a solution to the homelessness crisis in major cities. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span>In his hometown of French Polynesia, Collins said, low-income residents are paying more</span></span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> per square foot than their wealthy neighbors. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">By developing a floating community that serves as "an extension" of an existing city, Collins hopes to alleviate housing constraints caused by growing populations and a lack of available land. </span></p><p><span>Unlike Michael Oliver's vision for his autonomous island, Oceanix City could be built and operated within a <span style="font-weight: 400;">local government's jurisdiction - a difference that could keep the new proposal from languishing as a series of renderings. </span></span></p><p>Ingels calls his vision for the project "utopian pragmatism," meaning that grand design feats can be accomplished in concrete, practical ways.</p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Everybody on the team actually wants to get this built," Collins told the UN. "We're not just theorizing."</span></p>

Floating cities are getting far closer to reality than ever before - but they won't be the libertarian utopias billionaires have proposed

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Traditional medicine is still used throughout China, alongside modern medicine.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Economists have thrown out proposals on how China could escape its <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/one-way-for-china-to-escape-a-debt-defation-trap-2016-5?r=DE&amp;IR=T">debt-deflation spiral,</a> and now it seems like the country's leadership has finally caught on. </p><p>Premier Li Keqiang, who chaired the State Council meeting on Monday, vowed to accelerate major investment projects, especially in water conservancy, poverty alleviation, urban flood prevention, and other "weak links" in the economy.</p><p><span>"The key to expanding demand and creating a proper context for China's supply side structural reform is improving our own weak links," Li <a href="http://english.gov.cn/premier/news/2016/09/06/content_281475435032958.htm">said in a statement Tuesday</a>. "China is still a developing country, with huge development gaps among regions and also between rural and urban areas. We need to work hard to expand effective investment and make stronger efforts in improving weak links."</span></p><p>More specifically, the government will ease restrictions on infrastructure spending and grant equal access to private investors in areas like education and medical care, according to the statement. They are also encouraging policy banks to boost financial support to investment projects, and pushing state-owned enterprises to invest more in rural grid and telecommunication projects, the statement said.</p><p>It's now a good time to increase infrastructure spending because commodity prices are relatively cheap. Besides, increasing domestic demand appropriately helps China's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/china-supply-side-economics-2016-1">supply-side reform</a>, according to the statement. President Xi Jinping has been asking government officials to cut taxes, restructure or shut down "zombie companies," and tackle the housing glut since last year, which seems <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-changed-its-china-story-again-2016-6">increasingly difficult to pull off</a> amid the buildup of debt.</p><p>Last week, the government has announced that they will send inspection teams to make sure projects are carried out on the ground on a timely manner.</p><p>These two moves can really shake things up in the near term, since they can affect people's willingness and ability to invest, according to a client note led by Goldman Sach's Yu Song. </p><p>Here is Song (emphasis ours):</p><div title="Page 2"><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>"</span><span>As for willingness to invest, the inspection teams effectively force lower-level officials (who have often being accused of inertia during the anti-corruption campaign) to carry out their duties. <strong>While some skeptics may say that sending out inspections will not solve the problem fundamentally, actual experiences in recent years indicate that they do tend to make lower-level officials more proactive than usual.</strong> The ability to invest is mainly a question of funding - project approvals have become much less important than before the current leadership took over in 2013 as the government made the approval process much easier, and there are a large number of existing projects which are not being carried out in a timely fashion. <strong>The key focus of the funding is likely to be off budget quasi fiscal supports via policy banks. This funding has the practical advantage that it doesn't make the budget deficit appear to be too large and is relatively easily controllable by the government, contrary to the lending activities of listed commercial banks.</strong>"</span></p></div><p>Li's remarks follow a series of government pledges to ramp up fixed asset investments, which have been on a decline, via the private sector to maintain their <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-china-fourth-quarter-gdp-growth-seen-slowing-to-weakest-pace-since-2009-2016-1">GDP growth target of at least 6.5%</a>. That includes removing "political barriers" for private investments and allowing private capital to flow into sectors like oil and gas drilling.</p><p>China will likely see a stabilizing infrastructure investment growth at 15% to 20% year on year in the second half of 2016, according to a client note by Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Helen Qiao. While solid infrastructure investment growth is expected to help with overall economic growth in the period, the country could still see a slowdown, although not enough to trigger looser monetary policy.</p><p>Here is Qiao:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"Even with infrastructure investment growth remaining resilient in 2H2016, overall growth momentum will likely weaken as private investment (60% of FAI) continues to decelerate. But without substantial growth deceleration, there will unlikely be major policy easing."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kobe-bryant-stibel-nba-stars-new-venture-capital-fund-tech-video-games-players-tribune-2016-8">Kobe Bryant is starting a $100-million venture capital fund </a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="ZhbDdoNTE6pxSP3e0rgio_omuyYJ3ofw" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

This will give China's 'weak links' a shot in the arm

<p class="source"><span>Doe Fund</span></p><p class="caption">Members of the Doe Fund's "Ready Willing and Able" program socialize.</p>For some former prisoners, the hardest part about serving time is figuring out what to do when they get out.<p>Between finding a place to live, earning enough money to support themselves, and adjusting to a changing society, life as an ex-inmate can be overwhelming and stressful.</p><p>For some, it can lead to re-offending. According to a <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/rprts05p0510.pdf">study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics</a> that examined data from 30 US states between 2005 and 2010, two thirds of released prisoners were arrested for a new crime within three years, and more than a third were arrested after just six months.</p><p>But one organization is trying to reverse those statistics. <a href="https://www.doe.org/">The Doe Fund,</a> a New York City-based nonprofit that provides jobs, education, and housing to recently released male prisoners through its Ready, Willing &amp; Able program.</p><p>"Through a combination of paid work, social services, education, and career training, the men of Ready, Willing &amp; Able forge a path to self sufficiency," Alanna O'Donnell, media affairs manager for the Doe Fund, told Business Insider.</p><p>New participants in the program get paid to clean streets and sidewalks across New York. They continue on to training for specific trades, including culinary arts, building maintenance and pest control. Mandatory education classes teach them skills like literacy, financial management, and relapse prevention.</p><p>By the end of the program, participants are connected with job opportunities to sustain themselves and are given help applying for their own apartments.</p><p>"The tools they gain and the opportunities they earn permanently break the cycles of drug-use, incarceration, and poverty for them and their families, for life," O'Donnell said in a statement to Business Insider, <a href="https://www.doe.org/programs/ready-willing-able">pointing us to some research</a> outlined on The Doe Fund's website:</p><p class="source"><span>Doe Fund</span></p><p class="caption">A member of the Doe Fund's "Ready, Willing, and Able" program completing a work assignment</p><p>"I call it the 'no more excuses program,'" director Anthony Isaacs told Business Insider.</p><p>Isaacs, 60, can speak firsthand about the program's benefits. His first job after 25 years in multiple prisons around New York state was a case-management position with The Doe Fund that he secured six months after his release - he has since worked his way up. The program is "rewarding on both sides," he said.</p><p>"For the staff, we've had people who have spent a long time behind the wall and come out and been through the program and understand that it can work," Isaacs told Business Insider."That a nine-to-five beats doing 10-to-20 any day."</p><p>Isaacs set himself up for post-prison opportunities by attending many programs offered at the prison, including "educational, vocational, life skills, aggression replacement, drug and alcohol prevention, business planning, stress management, youth awareness and delinquent intervention." He also earned a bachelor's degree in social science while at Eastern Correctional Facility, and a master's degree in Professional Studies &amp; Urban Ministries from the New York Theological Seminary while at Sing Sing Correctional Facility.</p><p class="source"><span>Doe Fund</span></p><p class="caption">Anthony Isaacs of the Doe Fund</p><p>Another Doe Fund worker, William Bossio, 59, struggled with life after prison before he found the organization.</p><p>"When you first come home, it gets overwhelming cause everything bombards you," Bossio told Business Insider. "Bills start accumulating, your wants become more than your needs, and you get yourself in trouble. That's happened to me multiple times."</p><p>Bossio did several prison stints, the longest of which was 12 years at multiple prisons including New York's Rikers Island for a bank robbery. He was most recently released from Hudson Correctional Facility.</p><p>At the urging of his parole officer, Bossio attended a meeting for the Ready, Willing &amp; Able program. Once he graduated<span style="background-color: #ffffff;">, he secured a job as a dispatcher for the Doe Fund, making sure Ready, Willing &amp; Able participants get to their work stations on time.</span></p><p>"I guess I had to be pushed into making the right decisions," Bossio told Business Insider.</p><p>Bossio said he was "blessed to find a job" after prison, a time when even preparing your next meal can feel unfamiliar and stressful.</p><p>"A lot of guys, myself included, have difficult times the first year" after prison, Bossio said.</p><p>But Isaacs and Bossio's success stories show that there is hope for prisoners to have productive lives on the outside.</p>            <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/conjuring-movie-lawsuit-warner-brothers-ed-lorraine-warren-annabelle-james-wan-2017-4">Warner Bros. might have to pay $900 million if it can't prove ghosts are real</a></h3>                                    Please enable Javascript to watch this video

Two former prisoners reveal how they turned their lives around after their release

<p></p>
<p>Congress passes a bill that gives bipartisanship a bad name</p>
<p>WHILE Congress was gridlocked it was easy to forget how ugly the smooth functioning of government can be. After a delay of two years, a reminder came on February 4th when the Senate passed the farm bill, a strange piece of legislation which costs nearly a trillion dollars. It mixes benefits that mostly go to the poor (food stamps) with agricultural subsidies that mostly go to the rich (crop subsidies for large farms). Given a blank slate, nobody with an interest in either alleviating poverty or improving farming would construct such a law. Yet here it is again.</p>
<p>The alignment of rural and urban interests, which dates from when the two bits of legislation were yoked together in the 1970s, had temporarily broken down, largely thanks to some House Republicans who wished to treat food stamps (which account for 80% of farm-bill spending) and agricultural subsidies separately. They were motivated by fiscal prudence and the belief that welfare discourages work.</p>
<p>However, the imminence of November's mid-term election persuaded enough Republicans to change their minds for the bill to pass. Some of those who failed to secure farm subsidies for their constituents might have been vulnerable. Another concern was the "dairy cliff": the failure to pass a new bill would have invoked a 1949 price-support law, written when the need to produce enough milk for thirsty infant boomers was paramount, under which the government would have been obliged to buy dairy products at about twice the going rate. Even people who had trouble understanding that shutting down the government before Christmas would be politically damaging quickly grasped that doubling the price of breakfast would.</p>
<p>The bill passed with some pretend reforms to the food-stamps programme designed to be spouted in election campaigns, such as ending the supposed scourge of millionaires receiving the benefit. Democrats complained about savage cuts to food stamps, which actually amounted to a mere 1% over ten years compared with an earlier version. And the big picture is that food-stamp spending has exploded since 2000. The number of people receiving the benefit rose from 17m in 2000 to 26m in 2007 and then, as the recession bit, to 48m in 2013--though it is projected to shrink again as growth revives.</p>
<p>Those who think this expansion is a bad thing point to a study by James Ziliak of the University of Kentucky, which found that only half the recent rise was due to the stodgy economy. The remainder was caused by demographic change and a determined effort to make more people eligible, something that irks Republicans who suspect Democrats of expanding welfare to buy votes. However, Mr Ziliak, who studies poverty, likes food stamps because they are counter-cyclical.</p>
<p>America is unusual among rich nations in trying to tackle deprivation by giving away free food, a quirk that dates from a moment during the second world war when the government wanted people to buy up agricultural surpluses. Food stamps have high administrative costs and are open to corruption: some beneficiaries buy big packs of fizzy drinks and sell them back to the store for cash, minus the middleman's cut. The federal government runs a confusing mess of 126 anti-poverty programmes, many of which overlap, but there is no serious talk of making the system simpler and more effective.</p>
<p>The part of the farm bill that actually deals with farming is even worse. Farmers are not the only people whose businesses have ups and downs; there is no reason why they should get special treatment. The new law shifts away from direct payments, by which farmers received cheques for doing nothing very much, towards an insurance model, where farmers get paid if crops fail or prices fall too far. This sounds reasonable, but the insurance schemes lock in high prices when farming is profitable, as it is at the moment: since 2008 the value of farm assets has increased by half, says the Congressional Research Service.</p>
<p>Crop insurance has two other defects. The first is that while the risk of crop failure or low prices is largely underwritten by taxpayers, the policies are provided by insurance companies, so, in effect, they enjoy a subsidy too. Calculations by Vincent Smith of Montana State University found that between 2005 and 2009 for every dollar in crop insurance that went to farmers, $1.44 went to insurance companies. The second problem is that crop-insurance payments are skewed towards wealthier farmers. The Environmental Working Group, which campaigns against wasteful farm spending, calculates that more than 10,000 policyholders received over $100,000 from crop-insurance subsidies in 2011. The new bill tries to cap the amount that any one farmer can receive; but if the weather is bad, it could lead to higher payouts than planned.</p>
<h3>Sweet deals</h3>
<p>Taken together, these subsidies distort behaviour and trade in unhelpful ways. They have created products that make no economic sense in the rest of the world, such as making sugar from corn. As a penalty for keeping cotton subsidies in place, the World Trade Organisation's rules require the American government to pay $147m a year to compensate farmers in Brazil. The new bill is unlikely to resolve that, either.</p>
<p>How could Congress write such a law? One answer can be found in the register of political donations. The ten members of the House, nine Republicans and one Democrat, who accepted most money from agriculture lobbyists took in an average of $225,000 in political contributions during 2013, according to Open Secrets, which tracks donations--almost as much as some farmers received in return.</p>
<p>Click <a href="https://subscriptions.economist.com/nwcd">here</a> to subscribe to The Economist</p>
<p></p>

Why The Trillion Dollar Farm Bill Is Such A Disaster

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/41284017@N08/6302435631/in/photolist-aAVCxi-7H4min-atCg2V-aAVBGD-8tx5VE-8yUNDv-8yUNEM-caeurb-caeXJC-caeYdL-bUcNMv-cbyZKs-cbz1qj-bUcQCB-caWBuQ-a9XYKU-ctQoeo-aAYmoh-bqzRxm-chMYXy-chMZ3q-chMZ23-chMYWo-chMYU1-chMYZq">USDA</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>Congress passes a bill that gives bipartisanship a bad name</p>
<p>WHILE Congress was gridlocked it was easy to forget how ugly the smooth functioning of government can be. After a delay of two years, a reminder came on February 4th when the Senate passed the farm bill, a strange piece of legislation which costs nearly a trillion dollars. It mixes benefits that mostly go to the poor (food stamps) with agricultural subsidies that mostly go to the rich (crop subsidies for large farms). Given a blank slate, nobody with an interest in either alleviating poverty or improving farming would construct such a law. Yet here it is again.</p>
<p>The alignment of rural and urban interests, which dates from when the two bits of legislation were yoked together in the 1970s, had temporarily broken down, largely thanks to some House Republicans who wished to treat food stamps (which account for 80% of farm-bill spending) and agricultural subsidies separately. They were motivated by fiscal prudence and the belief that welfare discourages work.</p>
<p>However, the imminence of November's mid-term election persuaded enough Republicans to change their minds for the bill to pass. Some of those who failed to secure farm subsidies for their constituents might have been vulnerable. Another concern was the "dairy cliff": the failure to pass a new bill would have invoked a 1949 price-support law, written when the need to produce enough milk for thirsty infant boomers was paramount, under which the government would have been obliged to buy dairy products at about twice the going rate. Even people who had trouble understanding that shutting down the government before Christmas would be politically damaging quickly grasped that doubling the price of breakfast would.</p>
<p>The bill passed with some pretend reforms to the food-stamps programme designed to be spouted in election campaigns, such as ending the supposed scourge of millionaires receiving the benefit. Democrats complained about savage cuts to food stamps, which actually amounted to a mere 1% over ten years compared with an earlier version. And the big picture is that food-stamp spending has exploded since 2000. The number of people receiving the benefit rose from 17m in 2000 to 26m in 2007 and then, as the recession bit, to 48m in 2013--though it is projected to shrink again as growth revives.</p>
<p>Those who think this expansion is a bad thing point to a study by James Ziliak of the University of Kentucky, which found that only half the recent rise was due to the stodgy economy. The remainder was caused by demographic change and a determined effort to make more people eligible, something that irks Republicans who suspect Democrats of expanding welfare to buy votes. However, Mr Ziliak, who studies poverty, likes food stamps because they are counter-cyclical.</p>
<p>America is unusual among rich nations in trying to tackle deprivation by giving away free food, a quirk that dates from a moment during the second world war when the government wanted people to buy up agricultural surpluses. Food stamps have high administrative costs and are open to corruption: some beneficiaries buy big packs of fizzy drinks and sell them back to the store for cash, minus the middleman's cut. The federal government runs a confusing mess of 126 anti-poverty programmes, many of which overlap, but there is no serious talk of making the system simpler and more effective.</p>
<p>The part of the farm bill that actually deals with farming is even worse. Farmers are not the only people whose businesses have ups and downs; there is no reason why they should get special treatment. The new law shifts away from direct payments, by which farmers received cheques for doing nothing very much, towards an insurance model, where farmers get paid if crops fail or prices fall too far. This sounds reasonable, but the insurance schemes lock in high prices when farming is profitable, as it is at the moment: since 2008 the value of farm assets has increased by half, says the Congressional Research Service.</p>
<p>Crop insurance has two other defects. The first is that while the risk of crop failure or low prices is largely underwritten by taxpayers, the policies are provided by insurance companies, so, in effect, they enjoy a subsidy too. Calculations by Vincent Smith of Montana State University found that between 2005 and 2009 for every dollar in crop insurance that went to farmers, $1.44 went to insurance companies. The second problem is that crop-insurance payments are skewed towards wealthier farmers. The Environmental Working Group, which campaigns against wasteful farm spending, calculates that more than 10,000 policyholders received over $100,000 from crop-insurance subsidies in 2011. The new bill tries to cap the amount that any one farmer can receive; but if the weather is bad, it could lead to higher payouts than planned.</p>
<h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>The Economist</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></h3>
<h3>Sweet deals</h3>
<p>Taken together, these subsidies distort behaviour and trade in unhelpful ways. They have created products that make no economic sense in the rest of the world, such as making sugar from corn. As a penalty for keeping cotton subsidies in place, the World Trade Organisation's rules require the American government to pay $147m a year to compensate farmers in Brazil. The new bill is unlikely to resolve that, either.</p>
<p>How could Congress write such a law? One answer can be found in the register of political donations. The ten members of the House, nine Republicans and one Democrat, who accepted most money from agriculture lobbyists took in an average of $225,000 in political contributions during 2013, according to Open Secrets, which tracks donations--almost as much as some farmers received in return.</p>
<p>Click <a href="https://subscriptions.economist.com/nwcd">here</a> to subscribe to The Economist</p>
<p></p>

The Farm Bill: A Trillion In The Trough

Billionaire Dan Gilbert has already bet $5.6 billion on Detroit's future, but money can't solve his biggest challenge

<p>When Donald Trump unveiled his <a href="https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/fact-sheet-donald-j.-trumps-new-child-care-plan">proposal</a> to make child care tax deductible, there was one line that went by almost unnoticed. It said the benefit would be capped "at the average cost of care for the state of residence."</p><p>Whether or not this ever becomes law, the mention of it is remarkable. Today, virtually no federal taxes are adjusted by regional differences in the cost of living. If you earn $50,000 in an expensive city, you're taxed just the same as someone earning that salary in a cheap place to live. Is that fair?&#xa0;</p><h2>Heading west</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Kate and Mike Swelstad had been married for a couple of years when they started thinking about moving from their native Michigan to the San Francisco Bay Area, feeling the draw of nicer weather, mountains, and great camping.<p>At the time, Kate&#xa0;was working as a zookeeper at the Detroit Zoo. Mike&#xa0;worked at a Ford call center. She was cautious about such a big move, but Mike persisted.</p><p>"One day he said, 'I'm just going to buy a ticket," Kate&#xa0;told Business Insider. And shortly after he did.</p><p>Toward the end of 2003, as 23-year-olds, they packed their bags and headed west, settling near San Francisco.</p><p>As&#xa0;she'd done in Michigan, Kate&#xa0;worked at a zoo for a while. Mike&#xa0;ended up working as a receptionist at an insurance agency.</p><p>The jobs they did in California were at the same level as their jobs in Michigan. But costs out west for housing, food, and other expenses were much, much higher.</p><p>"It's almost twice the price to go out to dinner in California versus Michigan," Kate&#xa0;said.</p><p>Their salaries reflected this. They were higher than they would've been back in Michigan. But those higher wages meant they also paid more in tax to the federal government, with some of that ending up in a higher tax bracket than they would have been in back in Michigan.</p><ul><li>Michigan 2003 earnings: $48,944</li><li>California 2005 earnings: $61,967&#xa0;(earnings above 59,401 are subject to higher tax)</li></ul><p>"It's not really fair," Kate&#xa0;said. "We're making more money than we were in Michigan, but we're not seeing the value of it."</p><p><strong><em>"City dwellers have every right to feel a little ripped off." </em><em>Listen&#xa0;to the BIQ Podcast:&#xa0;</em></strong></p><h2><div></div></h2><h2>A question of fairness&#xa0;</h2><p>Kate and Mike had never really thought about tax brackets and regional differences, but after they moved, they were talking with their friend David Albouy about just how much more expensive everything is on the coast, and Albouy started thinking deeply about whether it's fair that they also have to pay more tax.</p><p>"They were paying a lot in taxes and not receiving a whole lot in benefits," Albouy said.</p><p>He happens to be an economist, today teaching at the University of Illinois, and the experience of Kate and Mike partially inspired his research, which looks at how the tax system treats people in different regions.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>As he sees it, people like Kate and Mike pay more to the federal government, but they don't use more services. If anything, they're subsidizing those people who are earnings less because they live&#xa0;in cheaper cities.<p>"There was some real effect of living in the Bay Area on how much you earned, but they were clearly poorer in the long run," Albouy said.</p><p>The Bay Area costs more than Michigan for a lot of reasons. There's the natural beauty that&#xa0;draws people. There's wine country, great restaurants, and a concentration of talented, productive workers who drive up prices. But there's also a healthier labor market than where they came from.&#xa0;</p><p>"Kate and Mike ultimately did the right thing to come to San Francisco. The economy in Detroit was declining and it didn't need more workers," Albouy said. But as they moved, the US "didn't make it easy for them because they paid more in taxes. They lost a lot of benefits."</p><p>For Kate and Mike it was a choice, and they clearly understand the consequences. But not everyone living in a more expensive place has chosen to live there, and sometimes an expensive region needs to attract workers.</p><h2>You have to have nurses&#xa0;</h2><p>Albouy offers an example: Every city needs nurses. Let's say New York City has a shortage and Cleveland has a surplus. There'd be a pretty good incentive for nurses to move east, and they'd likely get a big pay bump in the process.</p><p>If nurses made $50,000 in the Midwest, they might earn $80,000 for the same kind of job in New York. In theory, that wage premium accounts for the higher cost of rent and food and other necessities. But a nurse would also pay more tax.&#xa0;</p><p>"Why is she paying extra money?" Albouy said. "Is she costing the federal government more? Probably not."</p><h2>And janitors</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>The question of fairness is even more stark at the low end of the income spectrum. Take a janitor, for instance.<p>In an inexpensive city like Kansas City, he might earn about&#xa0;$8 an hour. If he worked 40 hours a week every single week, he'd take home just $16,640 per year.</p><p>A similar janitor in New York may earn $15 an hour, bringing his pay to $31,200.</p><p>Presumably, the standard of living for the New Yorker will be the same - or perhaps even lower -&#xa0;than the Kansas City janitor because of the high cost of living. And we can assume that neither has much choice about where he lives, given financial means, and family ties.&#xa0;</p><p>But a few things happen here. For one, the Kansas City filer only pays 10% federal tax on his income. The New Yorker has to pay 15% tax on his income over about $18,500 (in this simplified example, assuming married, filing jointly.)</p><p>Further, the New Yorker will qualify for far less of the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is one of the more <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/03/15/174358638/a-surprisingly-uncontroversial-program-that-gives-money-to-poor-people">effective</a> programs helping bring Americans out of poverty.&#xa0;</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>"That's going to put them above the poverty line and they're not going to qualify for most benefits, and they're not going to qualify for medicaid, or barely," Albouy said.&#xa0;</p><p>In New York, for instance, the worker's family would likely lose access to food stamps or free student lunches, even though he's not living a nicer life necessarily than the worker in the cheap city.</p><h2>A better way?</h2><p>Adjusting federal tax rates to account for regional differences in wages and costs almost never comes up in debates over tax reform.&#xa0;</p><p>Congressman Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat representing parts of Manhattan, has <a href="https://nadler.house.gov/press-release/reps-nadler-lowey-and-israel-call-tax-equity-cities-high-cost-living">proposed</a> changes along these lines, but they got little traction in the House of Representatives, in part because&#xa0;they were seen as benefiting the richest New Yorkers. His office did not reply to&#xa0;requests for comment.&#xa0;</p><p>Albouy's ideas take that objection into account. He says there are a few ways we could change our tax code to be more fair but not give big breaks to the rich.</p><p>First, regional differences could be based on conservative salary measures. Second, it could go beyond cost-of-living variances and incorporate measures of quality of life. Really great places to live, like near a beautiful beach, might be taxed more.</p><p>It might also make sense to tax people based on where they work rather than where they live, to account for the higher wages in city centers. A lower-income worker&#xa0;might travel a long distance to get to work in an expensive city center.</p><h2>What could go wrong?</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Despite all the differences in pay and costs across the US, federal taxes do not&#xa0;take into account regional differences. Part of the reason why Albouy's ideas have not caught on is that it would be complicated.&#xa0;<p>"It would add incredible complexity to the tax code," said Matthew Gardner, senior fellow with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.</p><p>There are many good reasons, he said, why things cost more in New York than they do in rural Nebraska. There's more to offer in New York, and more people want to live there, which creates scarcity of housing and other goods. That means employers have to pay workers more there.</p><p>But the tax code doesn't know any of that. "The income-tax laws are obviously blind to what's driving your wages," he said. "All your income tax laws know is that you're earning more."</p><p>So the question becomes where do you draw the line. Do you base tax rates on each state's average wages? If so, you lose the stark differences between New York City pay and what workers upstate earn.&#xa0;</p><p>Or you could have two sets of tax brackets, one for those living in urban areas and another for those in the country. But that is a "blunt instrument," Gardner said, and could create new inequalities. How do you distinguish between those who choose to live in an expensive city, and those who are stuck in one?</p><p>Just as city dwellers today might feel like they're subsidizing the rest of the country, changing the tax code might create resentment in the opposite direction.</p><p>"It's hard to think of a mechanism for alleviating geographic differences in cost of living that wouldn't add as many inequities as it would solve," he said.</p><p>And, Gardner said, wealthier residents of expensive cities already get tax breaks that make it easier to live there. The mortgage-interest tax deduction, for instance, incentivizes homeownership in places with astronomical home prices, like San Francisco. And state and local taxes are deductible from federal returns.&#xa0;</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>"There are people who argue and look at the itemized deductions for state/local taxes and mortgage interest, and view it as insane subsidy for people who live in high cost areas," he said.<p>And, he said, there are only a few cities where cost of living is significantly higher than elsewhere, which raises the question of whether state and local governments should be responsible for reducing tax burdens.&#xa0;</p><h2>'Penalized'</h2><p>But for Kate and Mike, who now have two kids, the strain of living in the Bay Area is taking a toll. Their incomes have risen in the past decade, now about $71,000 a year combined.&#xa0;They know that would be plenty to live a comfortable life in Michigan, but even in the outskirts of San Francisco, it's hard.</p><p>"It seems like we were penalized for coming out here," she said. "It was our choice to come out here, but we thought, great, it costs more but it's OK, we're making more. It will work out."&#xa0;</p><p>Every now and then she catches up with her old friend David Albouy, the economist, and they talk about his research.&#xa0;</p><p>"It kind of brings up the frustration," she said. "It's not like we sit around thinking about tax brackets all the time, but he's kind of a reminder."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ken-rogoff-harvard-economist-explains-advocating-eliminate-100-bill-2016-10">Ken Rogoff explains why he's been advocating to eliminate the $100 bill</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="1xamphNjE6j9cijVVdXjJy0AC1Y81I8o" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div></hr>

There's another way people in expensive cities are 'penalized,' and they might not know it

Full text of President Ram Nath Kovind's first address to the Parliament as the 17th Lok Sabha gets underway

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters/Mike Blake</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>For the last five years, the top goal of economic policy has been stimulating demand. This has been the right goal, and because conservatives don't believe the government can do anything productive in this area, the left has held most of the right policy answers.</p>
<p>Demand stimulation remains the right goal today, but it's not going to be the right goal forever. As the economy returns to "normal," the special rules of the last five years won't apply: the labor market won't be so slack that it doesn't matter if you pay people not to work; the federal government won't be able to borrow and spend without crowding out private activity.</p>
<p>We're going to need a new supply side economics that encourages people to work, invest and innovate.</p>
<p>That <em>doesn't</em> mean conservatives' agenda of tax cuts and federal deregulation, which aims at problems that were addressed in the 1970s or never existed at all. But it also doesn't mean an agenda of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-long-liberal-prescription-that-wont-fix-the-economy-2013-6">small-bore and meddlesome initiatives</a> designed to promote specific industries, particularly manufacturing, as often described by President Barack Obama.</p>
<p>Instead, it should mean an agenda like the following. These are policies that would<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> would encourage more investment and job creation while supporting rises in standards of living for people with low and moderate incomes. In most cases, these policies don't have to wait: They could be implemented today, alongside demand-side policies that are still needed for now, such as emergency extended unemployment insurance.</span></p>
<p><strong>1. Invest in smart infrastructure, ideally without building much.</strong> Republicans show little interest in infrastructure spending. Democrats favor it, but have fallen into a bad habit of talking about it as a demand-side measure that creates construction jobs.</p>
<p>A good infrastructure project should mainly produce benefits on the supply side by making<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> it easier for people to get to jobs, go to school, and start companies. And w</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">hile a demand-side approach to infrastructure policy favors spending lots of money, a supply-side infrastructure agenda should favor high-efficiency improvements, ideally ones that increase the usefulness of existing facilities with minimal construction.</span></p>
<p>Stephen Smith's ideas about <a href="http://observer.com/2013/08/vanity-project/">better using existing facilities</a> at New York Penn Station are one example of an infrastructure improvement that would require little construction. Congestion pricing for roads, especially in Manhattan, is a second. Smarter airport facilities allocation (through advanced air traffic control technology and market pricing of takeoff slots) is a third.</p>
<p>Sometimes, we really will need big construction projects as part of the infrastructure agenda. To that end, we should figure out what allows continental European countries to build rail infrastructure <a href="http://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/us-rail-construction-costs/">so much more cheaply than we do</a> - and emulate their practices so we can build more of it. And we should focus on providing transit connections between low-income neighborhoods and job centers, because transit access is a <a href="http://nextcity.org/equityfactor/entry/mass-transit-per-capita-spending-economic-mobility-atlanta-detroit-san-jose">key driver of income mobility</a>.</p>
<p><strong>2. Reform means-tested entitlements without soaking the poor.</strong> Today, the key driver of high unemployment and low labor force participation is employers' lack of interest in hiring. That was even more true in 2009. When there are three applicants for every job opening (like now) or six (like at the depth of the recession), it doesn't matter very much for aggregate employment if a few people are content to collect unemployment checks until their benefits run out. Means-tested entitlement policy is not a very important driver of unemployment today.</p>
<p>That's going to change. As the labor market continues to tighten, it will become a larger problem that means-tested entitlement programs penalize poor and near-poor people for earning more income. In some cases, the working poor face <a href="http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412722-How-marginal-Tax-Rates-Affect-Families.pdf">effective marginal tax rates near 100%</a> because of benefits that phase out as they earn more wages. This is a disincentive to work, and in a normal economy it raises unemployment and depresses market incomes.</p>
<p>The talking point that "people want a job, not a handout" is not just wrong, it's insulting. We wouldn't impose a tax rate near 100% on people with moderate or high incomes and expect them to work anyway. Most low-wage jobs are not intangibly rewarding; people do them because they get paid. Except, if your marginal tax rate is near 100%, you don't really get paid at the margin. Why would a poor person do such a job (or work more hours at it) when doing so adds little to his or her income?</p>
<p>We haven't been able to have a productive conversation about this poverty trap issue because conservatives mostly raise it as a pretext for cutting benefits to the poor, even at a time when jobs are scarce and economic distress is high. But it is a problem for which there are constructive policy solutions that do not involve soaking the poor. You just have to be willing to spend money to make them work.</p>
<p>One such solution is already being implemented: Under Obamacare, unemployed people who take low-wage jobs will no longer be faced with the prospect of losing health insurance. This is a pro-work reform. In this spirit, we should adjust means-tested programs holistically so their benefits phase out as gradually as is feasible and nobody feels like they worked more and got little in return. This may involve raising benefit spending overall.</p>
<p>Some of <a href="http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/a-jobs-agenda-for-the-right">Michael Strain's ideas</a> about reforming unemployment insurance (such as wage subsidies for the long-term unemployed and bonuses for unemployed people who go back to work) would encourage work and raise family incomes. We should also reform our disability insurance system to encourage firms to accommodate workers with disabilities and encourage the disabled to remain in or re-enter the workforce if they can; David Autor and Mark Duggan have <a href="http://economics.mit.edu/files/6344">a proposal along these lines</a>.</p>
<p><strong>3. Move the deregulatory agenda down to the state and local level.</strong> In the 1970s, the big deregulation fights were properly at the federal level. Then the government deregulated airlines and trucking. Though technological change, regulation has become less important in broadcasting and telecommunications. Bank deregulation has been a mixed bag over this period; people talk about it as a cautionary tale, but some of the deregulations (such as ending the limit on savings account interest and allowing interstate banking) have served consumers very well.</p>
<p>The big federal regulatory fights that remain are in mostly areas where the federal government properly uses a heavy hand: banking and securities, and environmental protection.</p>
<p>The next round of big deregulation fights should be at the state and local level. Governments impose pro-incumbent regulations on a variety of industries from barbering to interior design to medicine to restaurants. These rules raise incomes for existing practitioners, but they make it difficult for new practitioners to enter the fields, and they raise consumer prices.</p>
<p>State and local governments should stop doing this.</p>
<p>In the interest of promoting interstate commerce, the federal government should pre-empt many of these regulations. For example, states should be forced to allow a <a href="http://www.aanp.org/legislation-regulation/state-practice-environment">broad scope of practice</a> for nurse practitioners so they can serve as independent primary care providers. This would reduce doctors' incomes, but it would reduce the cost of health care, raise patients' real incomes and help to control government expenditure.</p>
<p><strong>4. Deregulate America's most overrated industry: real estate.</strong> In some ways this is a subset of (3), but it's important enough to get its own bullet. Local governments destroy economic value by preventing the construction of buildings in the places where they are most demanded: Already-dense urban neighborhoods. There is enormous economic value to be unlocked simply by letting people live near where they work and work near where other people work.</p>
<p>Tight real estate regulation also leads to urban inequality and gentrification: New York and San Francisco are highly desired places, and when you use public policy to limit how many housing units can exist there, people of the greatest means will <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-8-reasons-why-new-york-rents-are-so-ridiculously-high-2013-7">bid up their price</a>. The best thing Bill de Blasio can do to alleviate the problem of "two New Yorks" and make this city less economically polarized is to allow the construction of many more apartments in Manhattan.</p>
<p>Deregulating the land will have positive effects on both the supply side and the demand side. One problem with the government trying to stimulate the economy through construction is it often builds <a href="http://observer.com/2013/05/pathfail/">things that aren't very useful</a>. Upzoning of urban land (and of land that should be urban, in places like Silicon Valley) can unlock a construction boom without requiring the government to figure out exactly what to build.</p>
<p><strong>5. Reform intellectual property - by weakening it.</strong> IP laws are arbitrary: By deciding what inventions can be made exclusive and for how long, the government decides what share of the benefits of innovation will accrue to inventors and what share will accrue to users. In some cases, IP laws divert creative energy from developing new ideas into figuring out how to exploit existing patents.</p>
<p>In the last decade, we've enjoyed a natural experiment where the IP protections for news and entertainment content have been weakened not by policy but by technological change. The result has been a rise in standards of living. <span>Yes, content producers are distressed, the affected industries are undergoing rapid change, and some people are making less money. But content itself is better and cheaper than ever. That's meant a rise in real incomes for people who consume content, which is great.</span></p>
<p>Entertainment firms have generally sought stronger IP protections in response to these technological changes. Policymakers should instead see that the sky didn't fall and look for ways to strategically weaken IP protection in other areas of the economy.</p>
<p>Patents and copyrights generate rents for owners of capital. For decades, the labor share of GDP has been declining and capital's share has been rising. Weaker IP is one way the government can lower the capital share of GDP and raise the labor share without redistributive fiscal policy.</p>
<p><strong>6. Improve education, somehow.</strong> This bullet is really a placeholder. Education is a sector with surprisingly low innovation and we could probably do it better. But I don't really know what to do about it.</p>
<p>American expenditure on education is already extremely high. We spend <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-10/do-we-underinvest-in-public-schools-.html">more per pupil</a> on K-12 education than any OECD country save Norway, Luxembourg and Switzerland, and by far we spend more than anyone else on higher education. This makes me wary of throwing more money at the problem. Efforts to improve educational outcomes through competition and choice have produced disappointingly mixed results. The for-profit sector, which might theoretically be an engine for innovation, has mostly produced a lot of ripoffs.</p>
<p>I'm optimistic about the Common Core curriculum standards. Some state university systems are starting to do good things with providing cost-effective degrees that are better tailored to the job market. But overall, it seems like there should be bigger ways to improve educational outcomes, and therefore long-run income growth.</p>
<p><strong>7. Admit more high-skill immigrants.</strong> There are lots of well-educated people elsewhere in the world who would like to come here and work. Immigration is a boon to the economy overall, but high-skill immigration is especially valuable and has more clearly positive distributional effects. It could negatively impact wages in some high-skill fields, like medicine and engineering, but by lowering consumer prices and promoting economic growth it would raise real wages for people with low and moderate incomes.</p>
<p><strong>8. Make taxes more progressive.</strong> This isn't a supply-side reform; in fact, it is likely to discourage investment and economic growth at the margin. But it's the most effective way to offset rising pre-tax income inequality, and a revenue source will be needed to pay for some of the above reform ideas, especially (2) and (3). The necessity of raising taxes at the top over time, and the negative economic effects that will have, make it all the more important to pursue a broad agenda of promoting investment and growth through non-tax policies.</p>

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