Location: Home :: Books on Poverty :: General AAS :: In Our Hands : A Plan To Replace The Welfare State

Need a quick gift? Try Amazon gift certificates.

Don't Forget To Visit:

The New Social Worker Online

SocialWorkJobBank

Online Continuing Education for Social Workers

Amazon.com Widgets

Related Categories

•	General AAS

Qualifying Textbooks

Custom Stores

Specialty Stores

•	Red Politics

•

In Our Hands : A Plan To Replace The Welfare State

enlarge

Author: Charles Murray
Publisher: AEI Press
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$20.00~~
Buy Used: $0.78
You Save: $19.22 (96%)

New (35) Used (37) from $0.78

Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 140
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9

ISBN: 0844742236
Dewey Decimal Number: 361.680973
EAN: 9780844742236
ASIN: 0844742236

Publication Date: March 25, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Hilighting/underlining within the text. Sticker residue on cover. Light Shelf Wear. Shows wear. Orders shipped within 1 business day.

Similar Items:

•	What It Means to Be a Libertarian
•	Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950-1980, 10th Anniversary Edition
•	Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality
•	Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (A Free Press Paperbacks Book)
•	Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Murray offers a plan to eliminate all federal welfare programs and to substitute a $10,000 annual cash grant for everyone age 21 or older.

Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

This Is The Difference January 23, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I have come to believe that the welfare state is nothing more than a vehicle for egalitarians to transfer income from producers to non producers, not an effort to provide for the poor but as a method to take from the wealthy...and I think this book proves that.br /br /This book presents a plan that would do away with all current transfer programs by the government and replace them with a yearly grant of $ 10,000.00 with the proviso that $3,000 of it is used on health insurance and that $2,000 be invested toward retirement. The concept is that individuals would be more efficient and the transfers a moral method in dealing with the issue of social welfare. It is pointed out that this form of transfer would foster a return to a Tocquevillian civil society, where individuals freely provided social safety nets rather have them imposed compulsorily by government. I enjoyed Murray's discussion of the view of morality described by Thomas Jefferson, Adam Smith and Edmund Burke. This to me clarifies the difference between libertarians and communitarians. I see communitarians arguing that a state must impose the social safety net while libertarians believe that the arrangements come about naturally by individuals themselves, like the invisible hand of God.br /br /We are asked in the beginning of the book to suspend our disbelief and consider the plan to be nothing more than a thought experiment, then once the plan is laid out Murray provides interesting points on why the plan is not only feasible but a realistic possibility considering rapid changes in technology, economic growth and political disenchantment.

5 out of 5 stars

A Bold Thought Experiment January 16, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

We need more books like "In our Hands," a bold thought experiment, which questions the underlying assumptions of our current welfare state. br /br /In an era, when we can no longer truly hope for "reform" of our national economy, except through the minor adjustments of economic instruments favored by one administration over another, Charles Murray challenges us to question our tactics for fighting poverty. br /br /If we want to give money to the poor, in order to give them a "leg up," why don't we just give them a lump sum? Why do we distribute the money through several different government programs? And, why do we give it out piecemeal?br /br /Murray's book is short, because his idea and his premises are so simple and straightforward. br /br /The unfortunate effect of Murray's book is the uncomfortable realization that his "$10,000 solution" makes so much sense that it won't be approved by Capitol Hill.br /br /Of course, Murray realizes this. But, his counterpoint is even more ingenius. If we acknowledge now that the 5 trillion dollars we have spent in the War on Poverty has had no effect, then there is hope that after we have spent 10 trillion with no effect, we will actually take steps to change our tactics. At that time, the "$10,000 solution" will look like the most attractive option.

4 out of 5 stars

"The welfare state drains too much of the life from life." October 27, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

"America's population is wealthier than any in history. Every year, the American government redistributes more than a trillion dollars of wealth to provide for retirement, health care, and the alleviation of poverty. We still have millions of people without comfortable retirements, without adequate health care, and living in poverty. Only a government can spend so much money so ineffectually." From the War on Poverty, on, however, too many still think we can finally succeed...if only the problem is bombarded with yet more cash. Charles Murray disagrees. "The problem," says he, "is that we are spending the money badly." The "limited competence of government---not our government in particular, or the welfare state in particular, but any government" is the problem. Government, by its inherent nature, Murray posits, is simply "far out of its depth" when it "begins trying to administer to complex human needs." Mr Murray offers a Plan herein, picking up on the notion that, in the War on Poverty, Poverty has won (as a former president has opined). But poverty can be alleviated, and the other failings enumerated above improved on, according to Mr. Murray, if we nuetralize what's called "moral hazzard" by economists. "People who are in need through no fault of their own can be given generous assistance with no downside risk. But people who are in need at least partly because of their own behavior pose a problem: How to relieve their distress without making it more likely that they will continue to behave in the ways that brought on their difficulties, and without sending the wrong signal to other people who might be tempted. Bureaucracies have no answer to this dilemma." "They cannot provide help to people who have behaved irresponsibly in a way that does not make it easier for others to behave irresponsibly." br /br /So, what's the solution? No, not endless cascades of funding. "The solution," in Mr. Murray's view, "is to give the money [now allocated by government on a slew of programs---give it, instead, directly] to the people." Consider this: As of 2002, the American federal government spent "about $6,900 for every man and woman in the United States age twenty-one and older" to fund workers' compensation programs, social security, medicare, medicaid, welfare transfers, and assorted smaller transfer programs of a nature similar to these aforementioned. In lieu of such Mr. Murray suggests that, instead, government "shall make no law nor establish any program that provides benefits to some citizens but not to others. All programs currently providing such benefits are to be terminated. The funds formerly allocated to them are to be used instead to provide every citizen with a cash grant beginning at age twenty-one and continuing until death." At the outset he proposes this sum to be $10,000. Think about it for a minute. As it would be indexed to cost of living increases, everyone would be assured of a bare minimum of retirement and access to health care (since everyone could purchase their own insurance out of the 10 grand annually. (Donald Trump, you say, needs another $10,000 a year? No, Mr. Murray's plan does progressively tax the individual $10,000 credit as one's income rises, but interestingly, will revert back to its full value should a high-earning person go bankrupt or something.) With such a guaranteed income, unemployment benefits, food stamps, and welfare transfers would be superflous. Nobody would be without the wherewithall to provide for their own basic necessities. How many teen moms, for instance, would risk a pregnancy, or at least a second pregnancy if they weren't going to get any government support should they do so? In a similar vein, the "current decline in marriage," Mr. Murray argues herein, "is not a function of modernity, but of the welfare state." br /br /The central point of the Plan, thus, is make people more individually responsible. "Under the Plan, people have ample raw materials for a [safety] net, but they must weave it for themselves." In short, the welfare state as a notion simply "drains too much of the life from life,"''exacerbat[ing] the very problems it is supposed to solve." Mr. Murray offers the example of Europe in this regard. The European ideal, he suggests, "is an ideal only for a particular way of looking at life. It accepts that the purpose of life is to while away the time as pleasantly as possible, and the purpose of government to enable people to do so with as little effort as possible." Hence in Europe fertitlity rates are below replacement levels, entrepreneural spirit lacking, voluntary associations scarce, and the notion of charity is a notion for government to alleviate with rich folks money. (Americans as individuals, by far, are more generous with their money than any other people in the world, for instance.) "Europe's former scientific preeminence has vanished." It no longer has "the political will to defend itself;" "a continent with neither dreams of greatness nor the means to reacquire greatness." "The real purpose of the Plan," the author concludes, "is the revitalization of the institutions that enable us to lead satisfying lives." "Happiness consists of something more than feeling good." "A person permanently high on drugs cannot be happy. A selfish or cruel person cannot be happy." There's a reason, is there not, why Americans are more inclined to feel proud of their identity than Europeans; why Americans volunteer their time; why they are far more charitable, embrace community through membership in assorted associations and/or religious houses of worship; who work hard...and are proud of it; and who, generally speaking, recognize a higher being think we are on this planet to do some good while we are here rather than to while away the time with our feet up sipping wine. The welfare state machinery in Europe has certainly encouraged negative behavior...and has already done too much damage in the USA, in Mr. Murray's opinion. This well argued and concise book (the heart of which is only 127 pages in lenth) suggests how we may reverse what societal negativity we have unconsciously wrought; or, at a minimum, to encourage introspection and debate. It's just one man's view, but it's certainly a thinking-person's book, worth contemplating. (06Oct) Cheers

4 out of 5 stars

A plan and a case to replace the U.S. welfare state--in 127 pages October 16, 2006
1 out of 3 found this review helpful

I must admit that although I like Murray's Plan a lot, until Part III I was somewhat bored. Part III though was fascinating and alone worth the book.br /br /At the very end Murray makes a very good argument about the feasibility of the Plan, but I wish he had addressed how we would overcome the gigantic mountain of vested interests that exists in the bureaucracies that run the current transfer systems. Given how good his arguments--and books--are, I'm sure he has an excellent answer to that, but it's not in the book. I still recommend it, and again, don't miss Part III.

4 out of 5 stars

The Author is correct to propose radical thinking: October 16, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Other reviewers have vetted the details of the book, I ask you to come up to 15,000 feet with me an look at the macro economic situation of the future, starting in 2015.br /br /Mr. Murray lays out a plan to radically change the government benefits delivery system which is exactly what we will need starting in 2015, when Medicare starts to collapse under the weight of retiring baby boomers. It's not just Medicare of course, but that is the largest program and a proxy for the stress to all systems in the future when our system becomes "upside down" with more retirees than payees.br /br /The budget deficits of 2015 and beyond are just now peeking above the political horizon. These deficits are so big and scary that there is little debate about it right now; however, waiting to fund them will be a disaster due to the lead time we need to reduce their impact.br /br /A plan like the author's could help bring about the kind of radical thinking needed to act now to save our systems. One of the great things about this book are the tables which account for all the government transfers. I have never seen all of the government subsidies laid out in one place and it is staggering to think that $60b goes to "corporate welfare".br /br /If we could only implement this plan coupled with a flat tax and a national health plan, those deficits would dissapear. If we do nothing, a Financial Armageddon awaits us all.

Copyright 2007 White Hat Communications.
Disclaimer: The products referenced on this site are manufactured and sold by parties other than The New Social Worker/White Hat Communications. We make no representations regarding either the products or any information vendors offer about their products.

Visit our poster store for unique social issues posters.

Amazon.com Widgets