The Democratic Party held its third presidential debate on Thursday night. The 10 hopefuls made at least five proposals that were based on erroneous premises or that would harm the country.

1. Wealth inequality is destroying the world.

Senator Bernie Sanders said he felt it was “unfair” pare his version of democratic socialism with the version practiced in Venezuela. But he distinguished himself from most of the field by promising bat wealth inequality:

To me, democratic socialism means we deal with an issue we do not discuss enough, Jorge – it’s not in the media and not in Congress. You’ve got three people in America owning more wealth than the bottom half of this country. You’ve got a handful of billionaires controlling what goes on in Wall Street, the panies and in the media. Maybe, just maybe, what we should be doing is creating an economy that works for all of us, not one percent. That’s my understanding of democratic socialism.

Sanders’ es from a recurring Oxfam report. But the study’s methodology isflawed. Oxfam does not include government benefits in its analysis, and it evaluates “the wealthy” by subtracting a person’s net liabilities from net assets.Thus, a financial speculator who is currently in debt would be considered “poor,” while a farmer making two dollar a day free-and-clear would not.

Democratic socialists and other interventionists (see below) propose a wealth tax to equalize fortunes. Venezuela justenacteda wealth tax on July 3, calling into question how “unfair” parison is.

2. A wealth tax will “build an America that reflects our values”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren touted her wealth tax as a panacea for funding an expansive welfare state. She said:

I have proposed a two-cent wealth tax on the top one-tenth of one percent in this country. That would give us enough money to start with our babies by providing universal child care for every baby age zero to five, universal pre-K for every three-year-old and four-year-old in this country, raise the wages of every childcare worker and preschool teacher in this country, cancel student loan debt for 95 percent of the folks who’ve got it, and strengthen our unions. This is how we build an America that reflects our values, not just where the es from with the billionaires and corporate executives.

Aside from e tax hikes, Warren has proposed a two-percent tax on any individual who withwealth(not e)estimated at $50 million, or three percent for those with net assets of more than $1 billion.Awealth taxwould tax the same e twice, cost the nation jobs , reduce investment, lower tax revenue, and is plainly unconstitutional. A wealth tax encourages the wealthy to emigrate and, studies find, actually lower the amount of taxes a nation collects. Sweden’s wealth tax raised $500 million butcostthe nation an estimated $166 billion; France’s wealth tax costs the government an average of€5 billiona year in tax revenue.

Because of the negative effects, nine OECD nations – including Denmark, Germany, Finland, and Sweden –haveabolishedtheir wealth tax since 1990. But, as mentioned, Venezuela’s collapsing dictatorship just imposed one this summer.

3. “Universal pre-K” benefits children …

In her answer about the wealth tax, Warren proposed that the government care for “our babies” by instituting “universal pre-K.” Julian Castro and Bernie Sanders also promised to deliver government-funded daycare-for-all.

Warren proposed adetailed planfor universal daycare, which structurally resembles ObamaCare. A family of four making up to $51,200 a year would qualify for “free” preschool, while others could pay a sliding scale not to exceed seven percent of their e. The program will cost at least $700 billion over 10 years.

Warren has said these programs save $7.16 for every dollar invested by reducing the participants’ crime and unemployment rates. These claims are based on two unrepresentative studies that wentwell beyondtypical daycare. The results have never been replicated by any traditional preschool programs.

Worse yet, multiple studies show more time spent in pre-Kincreases“assertiveness, disobedience, and aggression”andfuture criminal convictions, while possiblydecreasingacademic performance.“The most methodologically rigorous evaluations find that the academic benefits of preschool programs are quite modest, and these gains fade after children enter elementary school,”writesDavid J. Armor of the Cato Institute writes, “This is the case for Head Start, Early Head Start, and also for the ‘high-quality’ Tennessee preschool program.”

The proposal for government employees to raise “our babies” lends credence to the statists’contentionthat “kids belong to munities.” This ideology strikes threaten parental rights and undermines the family, the fundamental building block of society. “Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children,”accordingto theCatechism of the Catholic Church. “Following the principle of subsidiarity, munities should take care not to usurp the family’s prerogatives or interfere in its life.”

4. … But charter schools do not.

Julian Castro said: “It is a myth that charter schools are better than public schools. They’re not. And so while I’m not categorically against charter schools, I would require more transparency and accountability from them than is required right now.”

Numerous studies show the benefit of charter schools. The prehensive study of charter school studiesfoundthat “charter schools are producing higher achievement gains in math relative to traditional public schools in most grade groupings. … A tiny but growing literature on nonachievement es suggests positive influences of charter schools on educational attainment and behavioral es.”

For instance, New York City charter schools outperformpublic schools in English and math. “In math, the proficiency rate for black students in New York City charters is 24.1 percentage points higher than that of black students in all other public schools in the state,” notes the Manhattan Institute. Teenage girls who attended charter schools wereless likelyto end up pregnant, and teen boys were less likely to be incarcerated.

Castro’s rival, Cory Booker, defended charter schools by saying as mayor of Newark, “dagnabbit, we expanded high-performing charter schools.”

5. Poor children will hear four million fewer words by age five

Joe Biden repeated a well-known allegation that poor children fail in school, because they enter with a word deficit. “A ing from a very poor school — a very poor background will hear four million words fewer spoken by the time they get there.”

The actual figure is not four million words; it is 30 million words. However, as NPRexplainedlast year (at your expense):

[D]id you know that the es from just one study, begun almost 40 years ago, with just 42 families? That some people argue it contained a built-in racial bias? Or that others, including the authors of a new study that calls itself a “failed replication,” say it’s just wrong?

Bonus: Joe Biden tells parents to put the needle on the record.

Biden gave poor families child-rearing tips pensate for the word gap. “Play the radio, make sure the television – excuse me, make sure you have the record player on at night,” he said. “Make sure that kids hear words.”

Biden was right to correct himself from suggesting parents expose their children to too much television, which has been shown toharmacademic performance. However, evidence shows listening to music canboostperformance during high-stress events, including tests.

While some claimed that Biden’s reference to turntables made him seem out of touch, a growing share of people – especially young people – are enjoying music the old school way. Vinyl has rebounded from an all-time low of 0.7 percent of all music sales to over four percent today, and climbing.

One day, vinyl may again be number one with a bullet.

Related:

Fact check: 5 facts about the fourth Democratic debate of 2019.

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