Tethered Citizens: Time to Repeal the Welfare State
Where libertarian manifestos are popular, this denunciation of the welfare state from a former Cato Institute senior editor, currently a senior fellow at the Future of Freedom Foundation, will have appeal. (Richman has previously attacked public education inSeparating School and State, 1994, and the income tax inYour Money or Your Life, 1997.) His latest book argues that welfare states are, at bottom, simply "engines of paternalistic wealth transfers." Historically, he insists, welfare states were constructed to allow venal politicians to toss bribes to groups of voters. Richman traces the shift, in the U.S., from "rugged individualism" to the welfare state and explores the impact of the Civil War, the rise of the social sciences, and a range of movements and intellectuals. After a chapter on how the poor would benefit if the U.S. abolished its welfare state, Richman closes his argument with the fervent assertion that only the elimination of every element of the welfare state "will remove the tethers that prevent individuals from living completely human lives." Most appropriate for true believers.Mary CarrollCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.