One of Peter’s most impactful studies was a Goodman Institute publication in which he showed that if you work full time in America, it’s virtually impossible to be to be “poor,” regardless of how many children you have and even if you earn only the minimum wage.

When Peter produced this 2018 study, the federal minimum wage was $7.50 an hour – and it still is. When you combined 40 hours of work at that wage and added the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit, the family came out above the poverty line.

Since that time, the two tax credits have become more generous and market wages (even for low-paid occupations) are way above $7.50. The average wage in the fast-food industry, for example, is about $18.

I have no doubt that if you repeated Peter’s study today, using a reasonable market wage, you would find that it is impossible to be poor in America, even if you work half-time.

Peter’s initial debut in the public policy world was with a 1980 Cato Institute book on privatizing Social Security. Two decades later, President Bush seized on the idea and created a bipartisan commission to do what Peter had envisioned.

Goodman institute Senior Fellow Tom Saving was a Social Security and Medicare Trustee at the time. He served on Bush’s commission and did the economic simulations the commission relied on – published my think at the time.

Much of what we did simply followed in the footsteps of Peter’s groundbreaking work.

Peter Ferrara was a graduate of Harvard Law School. He could have been a wealthy DC lawyer. Instead, he spent his life in the less remunerative world of ideas.

Peter was one of a kind. We are unlikely to see someone like him again.