The End of Welfare: Fighting Poverty in the Civil Society

Michael Tanner

jan 1996 · Cato Institute

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This book traces the growth of the American welfare state from the colonial era through the latest welfare reform bill and shows that government welfare programs have been a disastrous failure for everyone involved: for taxpayers, who must pick up the bill for failed programs; for society, whose mediating institutions of community, church, and family are increasingly pushed aside; and most of all for the poor themselves, who are trapped in a system that destroys opportunity for them and hope for their children. Tanner carefully examines the welfare reforms most often suggested by both liberals and conservatives - from job training to child care to workfare - and rejects them as unlikely to solve welfare's problems. Concluding that welfare cannot be reformed, Tanner calls for an end to government welfare and a return to the civil society's tradition of self-help and private charity. Tanner uses both "real-world" examples and the latest academic data to show that the civil society offers a far better way to fight poverty. As the debate over welfare reform moves into its next phase, Tanner offers a provocative alternative that is neither liberal nor conservative and is based on true compassion.