The hottest Social Welfare Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top U.S. Politics Topics

Singapore: Where your home loses value & everyone's better off

The Novelleist • 532 implied HN points • 05 Mar 26
🌐 International Social Welfare
  1. The government owns most land and sells only time-limited leases, so homes lose value as leases run down and eventually revert to the state, making housing a place to live rather than a long-term investment.
  2. Control over leases and planned lease expirations lets the state auction land to developers, capture value through fees, and master-plan redevelopment on a 40–50 year horizon to increase density and modernize the city.
  3. Revenues from land leases and sovereign-wealth investments fund low taxes and broad social services—universal healthcare, subsidized education, CPF pensions, and near-universal affordable housing—helping deliver high living standards and strong economic performance.

Are we underestimating who is poor?

Erdmann Housing Tracker • 2845 implied HN points • 12 Dec 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Welfare
  1. Basic living now costs a lot more than people expect, with health care, child care, transportation, and housing eating up huge shares of family budgets so many households need far more income just to get by.
  2. Decades of zoning rules and other political choices have cut housing supply and outlawed mixed, dense living, which drives up rents, pushes families to delay forming independent households, and transfers wealth from renters to lucky owners.
  3. The fix is to build more of the kinds of homes and street scenes we have made illegal—using finance to fund structures and mixed-use neighborhoods—so the basic cost of existing falls and reliance on public subsidies is reduced.

South African Refugees Are Left to Fend for Themselves

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 500 implied HN points • 11 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Welfare
  1. The government-funded refugee resettlement system is failing many newly arrived South African refugees, who are being placed in unsafe, moldy, cockroach-infested apartments in high-crime areas.
  2. Many refugees are struggling to meet basic needs — walking miles for groceries, eating only one meal a day, and encountering drug use and prostitution near their housing.
  3. Welcoming refugees on paper isn’t enough because resettlement agencies and funding arrangements are not providing the support needed for safe housing and successful integration.

Reflections on the Caplan-Bruenig Poverty Debate

Bet On It • 306 implied HN points • 07 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Welfare
  1. There’s surprising agreement on supply-side reforms like more immigration, housing deregulation, and nuclear power, but some on the left resist labeling these measures as free-market policies.
  2. A core moral disagreement is over private property and 'factor payments'—some deny that earnings are morally owned, a view that undermines ordinary property rights and even self-ownership with radical justice implications.
  3. Because of those deep moral differences and an emotional anti‑market stance on the left, practical cooperation between libertarians and the left looks unlikely even when they agree on specific reforms.
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It's All-Out War On the Vulnerable

¡Do Not Panic! • 1159 implied HN points • 20 Dec 23
🏥 Health Politics Social Welfare
  1. The British government eliminated the position of minister for disabled people, impacting the representation of disabled individuals.
  2. The US government aims to change the definition of disability to reduce the number of people classified as disabled.
  3. Governments are implementing policies that underreport disabilities, showing a lack of responsibility towards vulnerable populations.

Capitalist Individualism Is Killing Us

JoeWrote • 130 implied HN points • 12 Dec 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Welfare
  1. Capitalism concentrates power in workplaces where workers lack democratic control and are paid less than the full value of their labor.
  2. That system fuels hyper‑individualism which erodes social solidarity, turning people into competitors and undermining collective actions like public health measures and social safety nets.
  3. Democratic workplaces and strong social programs can rebuild mutual care and solidarity, aligning individual wellbeing with the common good.

The Secret Story of Nordic Prosperity

Erik Examines • 582 implied HN points • 27 Jun 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Welfare
  1. Nordic countries became prosperous through a mix of free-market capitalism and strong government involvement. They focused on creating policies that combined economic efficiency with social benefits.
  2. Socialism has played a significant role in the Nordic model, fostering cooperation among citizens and promoting corporate democracy, which allows workers to have a say in how companies are run.
  3. While Nordic countries are often seen as similar to the U.S., they have unique characteristics, like government control over key resources and industrial planning, that differentiate their economic success from purely capitalist systems.

Are Democrats too liberal? Or too conservative?

The Novelleist • 879 implied HN points • 03 Dec 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Welfare
  1. The Democratic Party needs to focus on social welfare and helping all citizens, instead of worrying about being seen as too left or right.
  2. The party should consider practical solutions like building more affordable housing units to reduce homelessness, rather than letting politics dictate inaction.
  3. Democrats can gain more support by boldly addressing real issues without fear of public opinion, similar to how some politicians have succeeded by being open and authentic.

Will the last young professional to leave Britain turn off the lights?

Wrong Side of History • 584 implied HN points • 20 Dec 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Welfare
  1. Housing costs in London are extremely high, making it hard for young professionals to afford living there.
  2. There's a growing concern about social housing being allocated to newcomers, which complicates the housing situation for local residents.
  3. Many young, skilled people are thinking about leaving Britain because they feel the current systems aren't working for them and they aren't getting enough support.

The Affordability Equation

QTR’s Fringe Finance • 20 implied HN points • 06 Dec 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Welfare
  1. How affordable a good is depends on how much output each hour of labor produces (labor productivity) multiplied by a discount factor that reflects time preferences and production delays, so higher productivity and faster production make things cheaper in labor-hours.
  2. Affordability rises when labor becomes more productive — through better technology, skills, more capital and natural resources, or a smaller labor supply — and when people save more so investment can finance longer production processes.
  3. Government actions like taxes, large spending, regulation, and state-run production tend to reduce affordability by lowering wages, discouraging investment, bidding up prices, and misallocating resources, so cutting taxes/spending and removing restrictions is presented as the way to improve affordability.

Untreated

KERFUFFLE • 97 implied HN points • 13 Dec 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Welfare
  1. The current state of mental health care in the U.S. struggles to address serious mental illnesses. Many people with severe issues end up homeless due to insufficient treatment options.
  2. Getting someone into a supportive psychiatric facility requires proving that they're a risk to themselves or others, which is a tough standard. This makes it hard to get help for many who desperately need it.
  3. After hospital care, many individuals are released back to the streets without proper long-term plans. This shows a systemic failure to manage mental health properly and protect the community.

June 30, 2025

Letters from an American • 27 implied HN points • 01 Jul 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Welfare
  1. A new bill is cutting healthcare for millions and giving tax breaks to the wealthy, which many senators are calling immoral and cruel. They argue this will lead to more children going hungry and losing essential healthcare.
  2. Senator Angus King shared a personal story about how health insurance saved his life, emphasizing the importance of access to healthcare for everyone. He criticized the push to take away health insurance from people who need it.
  3. The recent tax cuts mainly benefited the rich and led to increased national debt, while the government is now trying to cut social support for the needy. Senators are speaking out, calling the legislation corrupt and harmful to the public.

Less-than-Universal Basic Income

Hypertext • 19 implied HN points • 02 Feb 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Welfare
  1. Universal Basic Income (UBI) has gained popularity, but its implementation faces challenges in terms of cost and fairness.
  2. Alternative approaches like a permanent expansion of the Child Tax Credit offer a more feasible path for large-scale cash transfers.
  3. Expanding the Child Tax Credit could address concerns about cost and fairness while still providing significant support to families in need.

December 4, 2024

Letters from an American • 16 implied HN points • 05 Dec 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social Welfare
  1. The debate over wealth distribution in America has been ongoing, with some believing that the wealthy shouldn’t have to support the poor, while others insist that government should ensure fair opportunities for everyone.
  2. From the early 20th century to around 1981, there was a consensus that government regulation and support were necessary to help the middle class thrive and to prevent major economic crises.
  3. The economic policies under recent administrations have shifted back towards deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy, with significant implications for social programs and the middle class.