The hottest Social Policy Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways

Sweden Is Letting Gangs Get Away with Murder

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 700 implied HN points • 18 Mar 26

🌐 International Social Policy

Sweden prides itself on strong children's rights, having banned corporal punishment decades ago and incorporated the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into its law.
Despite that record, violent gangs in mainly immigrant neighborhoods are grooming children to commit serious crimes.
Critics argue that child-protection laws plus weak enforcement are leaving gaps the gangs exploit, making it harder to stop youth violence and hold offenders accountable.

Democratic economic policy in the age of AI

Noahpinion • 15823 implied HN points • 20 Feb 26

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

Craft economic policy that’s robust to huge uncertainty from fast AI and other tech changes, so it will work under many different future scenarios.
The 2010s progressive playbook of demand stimulus and big care subsidies ran into problems—macro conditions shifted to inflation, subsidies can push up provider prices, and promised billionaire taxes didn’t materialize.
Move toward an agenda of abundance: have government take an ownership stake in the corporate system and push policies that promote and support human work so gains from AI are widely shared.

To work or not to work

Global Inequality and More 3.0 • 1857 implied HN points • 28 Feb 26

🌍 World Politics Social Policy

Many rich countries choose shorter workweeks while keeping high productivity per hour, trading some material income for more leisure and a higher quality of life.
Global competition and the growth drive of market economies reward nations that work harder, so falling behind in effort can mean loss of wealth, influence, and technological edge.
There are different visions of work: some hoped abundance would let people work very little, while others argue people need meaningful, self-directed work rather than enforced drudgery for true human flourishing.

The "$140,000 poverty line" is very silly

Noahpinion • 24529 implied HN points • 29 Nov 25

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

The $140,000 "poverty line" mostly comes from simple data and math mistakes — using the wrong food-share number and the wrong income benchmark makes the figure much higher than it should be, and a corrected back-of-envelope comes in closer to about $80,000.
The method of redefining poverty by scaling a 1963 food-based rule to modern middle-class spending is flawed — it treats voluntary upgrades (bigger houses, fancier goods) and temporary costs (full-time daycare for young kids) as permanent necessities, which produces absurd results.
Reality checks show most families today have food, housing, insurance, and adequate transport, so calling a majority "poor" is misleading; that said, rising costs for housing, healthcare, and childcare are real problems that merit policy attention.

Investing in people, in Rmb20 instalments

Pekingnology • 207 implied HN points • 10 Mar 26

🌍 World Politics Social Policy

The Rmb20 pension rise to Rmb163 is widely seen as a token that leaves many rural elderly still in deep poverty, and delegates are pushing for much larger, faster increases.
The slogan of “investing in people” conflicts with budget choices that favor visible projects and targeted subsidies over simple, direct cash transfers to poor households.
Bigger rural pensions would be both a moral repayment to countryside contributors and an effective way to boost domestic demand, since poor pensioners are likely to spend extra income quickly.

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Public Choice Links, 2/23/2026

In My Tribe • 197 implied HN points • 23 Feb 26

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

Firms exist because centralized coordination has its own costs, but market coordination also has transaction costs, so internal management can be more efficient when that tradeoff favors it.
Lobbying reached record levels in 2025 as companies spent more to influence an unpredictable federal government, and foundations/nonprofits increasingly fund projects tied to donors' ideological priorities like social justice.
A universal flat Social Security benefit set above the poverty line would more effectively and cheaply reduce senior poverty, raising benefits for low earners and reducing them for higher earners, and would shift the common 'you earned it' narrative.

How Federal Law Made Us All Disabled

Richard Hanania's Newsletter • 4705 implied HN points • 04 Dec 25

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

More students are identifying as disabled to get extra help in school, especially at top universities, which raises questions about fairness. This system seems to benefit wealthier students more than those who truly need help.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has expanded over time, sometimes to an unreasonable extent, making many conditions qualify as disabilities. This has led to debates about how many people truly need accommodations.
Societal pressure often prevents people from pushing back against ideas that sound good, even if they might lead to unfair situations. This can cause problems when laws are made without careful consideration.

The $140,000 Question

Don't Worry About the Vase • 1747 implied HN points • 16 Dec 25

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

The $140,000 "poverty line" claim is nonsense because it conflates median spending with minimum needs and misuses averages, so it doesn’t accurately measure who is truly in poverty.
Still, many families feel financially squeezed because required costs and social expectations have risen, and more households now need two incomes to maintain a typical middle‑class life.
A real policy problem is benefit cliffs and phase‑outs that create high effective marginal tax rates and can trap people, so fixing how transfers are designed matters more than viral big‑number claims.

Assessing Brink Lindsey's "the Permanent Problem"

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 276 implied HN points • 09 Feb 26

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

Rich modern societies have solved material scarcity but have become so big and impersonal that they undermine people’s ability to flourish, producing crises of inclusion, dynamism, and politics.
The problem isn’t the Enlightenment or capitalism itself, but that markets, bureaucracies, ideologies, and algorithms have grown alien and overpowering, leaving people without human-scale power or meaningful connections.
The proposed fix is twofold: revive technological dynamism in physical sectors to lower costs and pursue an "abundance" agenda, and rebuild intermediary, face-to-face institutions while redistributing power so more people can form meaningful groups and purposeful lives.

Talking Banfield

Bet On It • 125 implied HN points • 19 Feb 26

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

Long-run poverty is often blamed on irresponsible behavior—especially strong present bias or high time preference—so many solutions focus on getting people to behave more responsibly or changing incentives.
Scholars dispute the key psychological root: some single out time preference, while others prefer a broader concept like impulsivity or low conscientiousness as the main behavioral cause.
There's a sharp divide over tractability: one view sees poverty as entrenched and hard to fix, while another believes tougher incentives and policies can gradually make irresponsible behavior more responsible.

Zohran Mamdani's Magnificent First Two Weeks

JoeWrote • 582 implied HN points • 16 Jan 26

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

Zohran Mamdani has moved quickly to prove a leftist can govern by using executive actions and bold appointments to deliver immediate results. He prioritized tenant protections, worker support, and a state-backed childcare pilot to show practical wins.
The administration emphasizes concrete, everyday improvements—like public restrooms, suing exploitative gig apps, canceling harmful orders, and pro-worker commissions—to improve people’s lives rather than just talk.
Significant pushback and legal hurdles already exist, from political attacks to court setbacks and policing questions, so governing will involve learning, tradeoffs, and managed growing pains.

The Myth of the $140,000 Poverty Line

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 1358 implied HN points • 30 Nov 25

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

The proposal to raise the poverty line to $140,000 rests on flawed assumptions and cherry-picked evidence.
It mixes up the cost of merely participating in modern American life with a proper poverty definition, and that misuse of concepts and data weakens the argument.
There really are affordability problems in the U.S., but redefining poverty this way doesn’t clarify those problems or offer a useful solution.

How To Increase the Total Fertility Rate

David Friedman’s Substack • 287 implied HN points • 03 Feb 26

🌍 World Politics Social Policy

Fertility rates in developed countries are well below replacement largely because people—especially women—are marrying and having children much later, which shortens the years when they can easily have kids.
Three main explanations are mating-market dynamics, career priorities that delay childbearing, and rising pessimism about the future. Each explanation implies different fixes, from shifting social norms to policies that make parenting and careers compatible to efforts that improve how people view the future.
If low fertility continues, populations may shrink unless offset by immigration, automation, or medical advances, and high‑fertility subgroups could come to dominate demographically, producing long‑term cultural or biological shifts.

Boomer Communism Is Bankrupting America

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 649 implied HN points • 22 Dec 25

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

A political bargain has turned into “Total Boomer Luxury Communism,” where retirees — including wealthy ones — receive large government benefits that drive up national debt.
Rather than shrinking government since the 1980s, both parties expanded entitlement spending, which is weakening the economy, eroding the defense industrial base, and harming young people’s prospects.
If entitlements aren’t radically reformed, the country risks becoming dominated by retirees and facing broad decline, yet this dynamic is largely overlooked in public debate.

Why Your Boss Can Block Your Unemployment Benefits

Can We Still Govern? • 133 implied HN points • 10 Feb 26

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

The experience-rating system ties employer taxes to benefit claims, so employers have a strong financial incentive to contest and sometimes block workers' unemployment claims. This incentive has even spawned a claims-management industry that helps firms fight benefits.
Employer pushback is common — about 26% of applicants reported contestation — and it disproportionately affects less-educated workers; contested claimants were much less likely to receive benefits and reported greater material hardship and stress.
Because contests can deny legitimate claims and worsen hardship, policymakers should rethink the employer role in UI by limiting contestation, changing tax incentives (for example, taxing layoffs instead of claims), or strengthening worker supports and data collection for appeals.

What Does the Public Actually Think About the Access-Fraud Tradeoff?

Can We Still Govern? • 215 implied HN points • 20 Jan 26

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

Most Americans prefer preserving access to benefits even if it allows some fraud — on average they accept about 192 ineligible recipients for every 1,000 eligible people helped (roughly a 1-to-5 ratio).
How a program is described strongly changes opinions: calling it abstract 'welfare' makes people (especially Republicans) much less tolerant of fraud, while naming specific programs like SNAP or unemployment raises willingness to accept some mistakes.
Policymakers often respond to fraud scares by adding verification burdens that shut out eligible people, so officials should discuss tradeoffs openly and emphasize concrete programs and beneficiaries when defending access.

When Volatile Work Schedules Meet SNAP Work Requirements

Can We Still Govern? • 254 implied HN points • 05 Jan 26

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

New monthly SNAP work-hour rules will penalize service workers with wildly variable schedules, because people who average enough hours over a year can still fall below a monthly cutoff and lose benefits.
Most schedule instability comes from employers, and many low-income parents want more hours but can’t get them, so the rules punish workers for things beyond their control and threaten families’ food security.
Requiring predictable, stable schedules or other supports would better promote steady work and child well-being and can even benefit employers, making these approaches a smarter alternative to strict monthly work-hour cutoffs.

A few takeaways from my friend’s new paper on loneliness

Sex and the State • 35 implied HN points • 17 Feb 26

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

Intensive parenting, later marriage, and fear of downward mobility are contributing to lower birthrates as people choose to have fewer or no children.
Lonely people are more vulnerable to advertisers, cults, and political manipulation, and screens and social media worsen isolation by replacing real-life social time.
Economic and social sorting — wealthy people clustering in homogeneous enclaves while poorer areas lose social capital — creates a vicious cycle that traps people in poverty and isolation, and it can be eased by mixed-income housing, more public social spaces, and policies that rebuild local civic life.

Quibbling with Cofnas: I

Not On Your Team, But Always Fair • 1690 implied HN points • 21 Jan 24

🌍 World Politics Social Policy

The hereditarian thesis acknowledges that different human groups have varied traits, but using the term 'race realism' may not be the best way to describe this concept.
Social outcomes are influenced by both genetic differences and cultural patterns, making 'race' a limited descriptor for these variations.
While genes play a role in social outcomes, factors like culture and social circumstances also significantly impact these outcomes, suggesting that a broader perspective than 'race realism' is needed.

Housing Roundup #12

Don't Worry About the Vase • 1478 implied HN points • 04 Jul 25

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

Small wins in housing reform are happening across the U.S., creating some optimism for the future. Even if some local policies aren't ideal, the overall trend seems to be moving in a positive direction.
The concept of 'affordable housing' can sometimes complicate progress. It's important that the focus remains on building more housing overall, rather than getting stuck in bureaucratic definitions that might not help those who need it most.
Changes in rules, like allowing buildings with single staircases or reducing parking requirements, can greatly improve housing availability. Legislative shifts in states like California and Texas show that reforming outdated policies can help meet housing demand.

‘I Risked Everything to Blow the Whistle on Britain’s Grooming Gangs’

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 3083 implied HN points • 03 Feb 25

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

A woman named Maggie Oliver exposed a shocking scandal where gangs of men groomed and raped young girls in Britain for many years. She worked hard to bring attention to these crimes, but faced a lot of obstacles.
Authorities often ignored or covered up the abuse to avoid being seen as 'racist'. This led to many victims not getting the justice they deserved.
Recently, more people are finally talking about this issue, which highlights how some waited until it was safe to speak out. Maggie Oliver wants to remind everyone that she raised alarms about this scandal long before it became a trending topic.

What have we learned about child poverty in America?

Can We Still Govern? • 145 implied HN points • 22 Dec 25

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

A near-universal expansion of the Child Tax Credit in 2021 sharply reduced child poverty, roughly halving the rate and lifting millions of children out of poverty.
Much of the federal spending on the CTC and EITC did not go to children in poverty—only a small share reached kids below the poverty line while over half of the dollars went to families above 200% of the poverty line.
The 2021 payments were delivered accurately and reached most children with minimal short-term effects on parental work, but making such expansions permanent would likely reduce parental employment more, raise fiscal costs, and still pose access gaps for some groups.

Power to the People

Comment is Freed • 76 implied HN points • 18 Jan 26

📰 News Social Policy

Labour is shifting toward a communitarian approach with Pride in Place, aiming to rebuild local civic life instead of just delivering top-down, technocratic fixes.
Evidence from Big Local shows long-term, flexible, community-led funding that protects local space, follows local instincts, and helps projects spread can grow social capital, improve outcomes, and attract more investment even with modest per-person spending.
Top-down managerial programmes can upgrade buildings and services but struggle to create lasting community power or emotional buy-in, so Pride in Place should avoid reverting to technocracy and prioritise methods that build pride, agency and momentum.

A $140,000/Year Poverty Line? I: Stewarding & Utilizing Resources

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 176 implied HN points • 04 Dec 25

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

Calling an income like $140,000 "poverty" is misleading because modern material standards mean people at that level usually have access to comforts and goods that were once luxuries.
Many well-off people still feel poor due to precarity, constant social comparison, and a lack of centeredness and mindfulness that make them live unwisely.
Living wisely and well depends on stewardship of resources and attention: prioritize saving and reliable income, avoid status-driven spending, and cultivate stability and sensible habits.

What the bottom-half is doing instead of forming new families

Sex and the State • 81 implied HN points • 07 Jan 26

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

Having a spouse and kids is a huge source of social connection and well‑being, so declines in family formation hit people’s lives harder than income measures alone imply.
Poorer, less‑educated adults aren’t compensating by forming new families — instead they’re increasingly childless, living alone, or staying in their parents’ homes rather than marrying or cohabiting.
That family‑formation gap deepens class divides and stifles intergenerational mobility, which fuels political anger that material welfare alone won’t fix.

Demographics Are Destiny

The Corbett Report • 19 implied HN points • 15 Feb 26

🌍 World Politics Social Policy

Global birth rates are falling everywhere and this looming population decline will reshape domestic politics and international power balances.
If population keeps dropping it can undermine modern economies and civilization, and leaders are already pushing robotics and AI as the main way to replace shrinking human labor.
Simple policy fixes like cash incentives or parental leave have mostly failed to raise fertility, because the decline is driven by deep cultural, economic, and biological factors and won’t be easily reversed.

How "YMCA" explains the homelessness crisis

Urben Field Notes • 124 implied HN points • 09 Dec 25

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

Single-room occupancy hotels were once a widespread, low-cost housing option that housed many different people with small private rooms and shared facilities.
Policy choices—like zoning bans, urban renewal demolitions, and incentives to convert SROs—destroyed millions of these units and removed the cheapest rung of the housing ladder, helping create the modern homelessness crisis.
There is renewed interest in rebuilding SRO-style housing through office conversions, co-living, and new laws, but these models need strong safeguards to avoid unsafe or exploitative conditions.

Ju Jiandong reimagines the Chinese local state: a new blueprint for Chinese modernisation

Pekingnology • 67 implied HN points • 12 Jan 26

🌍 World Politics Social Policy

Delegate real economic power to counties by turning them into professional "holding companies" with a stable revenue stream (about 6.5% of local GDP from VAT) so they can raise funds on capital markets; shares would sell income rights, not ownership of local assets.
Build a much stronger social safety net by raising basic pensions, creating publicly funded childcare and eldercare, extending compulsory schooling to 12 years, and establishing a university in every county; these measures could be financed with long-term bonds costing roughly 140 billion yuan a year.
Aim to create roughly 2,000 "small Singapores" within a unified national market by 2060, shifting to a knowledge-based economy with community clinics, more teachers and nurses, and pro-child policies (like pension multipliers) that together could generate about 30 million professional jobs.

Stock Investing for Babies

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 134 implied HN points • 03 Dec 25

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

Michael and Susan Dell are donating $250 savings accounts for up to 25 million children to create starter savings for kids.
They limit eligibility to zip codes with median incomes under $150,000 to avoid the wealthiest areas, but that threshold still covers most of the country and is well above the national median income.
The government savings program the donation supplements is structured so upper‑middle and middle‑class families benefit far more than working‑class or poor families, making the policy design the bigger equity problem.

We Must Return to the Classical Black American Tradition

Journal of Free Black Thought • 39 implied HN points • 19 Jan 26

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

A post–civil rights ideological shift toward neo-Marxist and socialist-influenced, state-managed solutions prioritized social engineering over community-building, which encouraged dependency and weakened families, churches, and local order.
Progressive, technocratic city governance and a permanent political class have managed chronic poverty while elites opt out with private schooling, leaving public schools to focus more on ideology than on basic literacy and vocational skills, which deepens stagnation.
The proposed remedy is a return to the classical Black American tradition—combining traditional Christian ethics with free-market enterprise and Booker T. Washington’s emphasis on economic self-reliance and moral development—to restore dignity, stability, and prosperity.

I'm pro-assisted dying in principle, but I'm not sure about the proposed law

Odds and Ends of History • 1407 implied HN points • 19 Nov 24

🏥 Health Politics Social Policy

Assisted dying has good intentions, as it offers a choice to people in pain, but how it’s implemented is very important. We need to make sure that laws respect individual decisions and do not lead to negative outcomes.
The proposed law on assisted dying could be rushed, which raises concerns about its effectiveness and potential problems. It's better to take time to create a solid law that can address all the issues carefully.
Looking at examples from other countries suggests that assisted dying laws can lead to serious issues if not properly controlled. We should learn from their experiences to avoid similar mistakes.

Why I Hope the Supreme Court Upholds the Ban on Child Transition

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 1275 implied HN points • 03 Dec 24

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

The Supreme Court is reviewing a case about a law banning transgender treatments for minors, which has raised questions about children's rights and safety. People are concerned about whether it's right to allow medical treatments that might harm young kids.
Jamie Reed, a whistleblower from a gender clinic, highlights problems in the medical field's approach to treating gender distress in children. She believes that the rush to affirm every child's feelings without deeper understanding can lead to severe consequences.
There is a call for more careful consideration and questioning within the medical community regarding treatments for gender dysphoria. Reed suggests that a balance is needed to ensure children receive appropriate care without compromising their well-being.

Kemi Badenoch: How Liberalism Got Hacked

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 1085 implied HN points • 12 Dec 24

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

Liberalism is in danger due to the rise of authoritarian ideologies. It's important to protect classic liberal values like free speech and free markets.
Personal experiences with poverty can highlight the importance of freedom and choice in society. Witnessing life under oppressive government helps people appreciate these values.
Classic liberal principles such as equality under the law and the presumption of innocence are essential for a healthy society. These principles are currently being threatened.

The Econoboi Poverty Debate

Bet On It • 80 implied HN points • 21 Nov 25

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

A recorded livestream called “The Econoboi Poverty Debate” is available for people who missed the live event.
The post was published on Nov 21, 2025.
The post invites viewers to watch the replay and notes the event was “quite fun,” indicating positive engagement and interest.

Europe's absent-minded revolution

Wrong Side of History • 759 implied HN points • 10 Dec 24

🌍 World Politics Social Policy

Europe is experiencing a political shift to the right, with right-wing populist parties gaining support and power in multiple countries. This reflects a broader public concern about immigration and economic challenges.
The initial intent behind mass immigration to Europe was to fill labor gaps, but many assumptions about immigrants and their integration proved to be wrong. As a result, tensions have risen over the cultural and economic impacts of immigration.
The debate over immigration in Europe is more about culture and community than economics. Many people value cultural sameness and fear the changes that immigration brings to their society.

Can a child identify as a woman?

A B’Old Woman • 499 implied HN points • 10 May 23

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

Some people believe that if anyone can identify as a woman, it could also include children. This raises concerns about how society defines gender.
There are fears that if children are allowed to identify as women, it could create safety issues, especially in spaces meant for women and girls.
Without a clear definition of what being a woman means, there’s anxiety about where boundaries will be drawn and how this may affect children and society.

My Brain Is Fried — Let’s Do A Quick Singal-Minded Exclusive Ask Me Anything RIGHT NOW

Singal-Minded • 359 implied HN points • 19 Dec 24

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

The author is working on two important pieces of writing related to youth gender medicine, which are coming soon.
There's a concern about misinformation spreading in this field, especially regarding a response to a review on youth gender medicine.
Despite feeling overwhelmed, the author is open to answering questions for a short time through an Ask Me Anything session.

munchausen by medical board

bad cattitude • 279 implied HN points • 28 Jan 25

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

There is concern that children are being pushed into identifying as a different gender without proper evaluation, which can cause lasting harm. Many believe that this trend is influenced by society rather than individual feelings.
Medical professionals are often required to affirm a child's gender identity without considering other underlying issues. This can prevent a comprehensive understanding of the child's mental health needs.
Critics argue that the medical approach to gender transition for young people can be harmful. They suggest that the focus should be on providing support and understanding rather than medical intervention.

Free money: Milton Friedman, unconditional income, and the neoliberal inheritance

Hypertext • 179 implied HN points • 15 Nov 23

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

Milton Friedman advocated for an unconditional negative income tax to create an income floor for all Americans.
Friedrich Hayek and other intellectuals support the concept of a negative income tax or Universal Basic Income.
The idea of a negative income tax failed in the past due to societal views of 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor, but there is potential for revisiting and implementing it now.

The Cincinnati Beat-Down

Journal of Free Black Thought • 81 implied HN points • 07 Aug 25

🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Policy

Recent violent attacks in Cincinnati highlighted a troubling culture of violence, with many bystanders laughing instead of helping. It's important to remember that violence is never justified, no matter the circumstances.
There is a belief that some black leaders aren't addressing the root causes of violence in their communities. Instead, they may be focused on pushing a certain political agenda, which may not help the people they represent.
Many think that restoring the traditional values, including strong family structures and community support, can help improve the current issues faced by black communities. This includes moving away from destructive influences in culture.