Long before Charles Murray took on the topic, Henry Hazlitt wrote an outstanding book on poverty that not only provided an empirical examination of the problem but also presented a rigorous theory for understanding the relationship between poverty and income growth.
He examines poverty in the ancient world, the poor laws of England, the advance of the middle class in the United States, the failure of welfare programs, the fallacies associated with income redistribution, and the relationship between population and poverty.
Its 20 chapters are outstanding essays that make for a well-integrated text on the topic, one which holds up as prophetic in every way, having foreshadowing welfare reform but also pointing the way toward even more radical reforms. The way out of poverty, he explains, is freedom, and freedom alone. 240 pages plus index.
Henry Hazlitt (1894–1993) was a well-known journalist who wrote on economic affairs for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek, among many other publications. He is perhaps best known as the author of the classic, Economics in One Lesson (1946).
Contrary to age-old prejudices, the wealth of the rich is not the cause of the poverty of the poor, but helps to alleviate that poverty. No matter whether it is their intention or not, almost anything that the rich can legally do tends to help the poor.
The whole system of priorities, allocations, quotas, and licenses causes endless delays, keeps efficient concerns from expanding, and keeps inefficient concerns in business.
Antipoverty "strategies" like mandatory overtime pay, state-protected unionization, and opposition to labor-saving devices only serve to increase the cost of living for poor and rich alike.
New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1973.
