The end of welfare

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.