The High Cost of Good Intentions

A History of U.S. Federal Entitlement Programs

De: John F. Cogan

Narrado por: Terry Ross

Federal entitlement programs are strewn throughout the pages of U.S. history, springing from the noble purpose of assisting people who are destitute through no fault of their own. Yet as federal entitlement programs have grown, so too have their inefficiency and their cost. Neither tax revenues nor revenues generated by the national economy have been able to keep pace with their rising growth, bringing the national debt to a record peacetime level.

The High Cost of Good Intentions is the first comprehensive history of these federal entitlement programs. Combining economics, history, political science, and law, John F. Cogan reveals how the creation of entitlements brings forth a steady march of liberalizing forces that cause entitlement programs to expand. This process - as visible in the 18th and 19th centuries as in the present day - is repeated until benefits are extended to nearly all who could be considered eligible, and in turn establishes a new base for future expansions. His work provides a unifying explanation for the evolutionary path that nearly all federal entitlement programs have followed over the past 200 years, tracing both their shared past and the financial risks they pose for future generations.

The book is published by Stanford University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

"Finally someone has written a comprehensive history of America's efforts to help worthy groups of Americans: the elderly, the veteran, the less fortunate, and the very young." (Bill Bradley former U.S. senator)

"This book should be read by anyone interested in addressing our nation's fiscal and economic future, regardless of their political persuasion." (Sam Nunn former U.S. senator)

"This is an important and splendid book." (Alan Greenspan former Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States)

©2017 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (P)2020 Redwood Audiobooks

Great book, ok narration

This is an interesting account of entitlement programs throughout U.S. history, and the volume of historical examples points to an almost universal truth: that entitlement programs will eventually suffer from scope creep that makes them unsustainable in the long run, and they tend to require taxpayer bailouts, bankruptcy, or mountains of debt to keep afloat.

The narration is clear and deliberate, but there are times where the tone shifts unexpectedly. It sounds like a number of edits were spliced into the original narration, but with either different equipment or a different narrator. The narration works well enough though.

Entitlements though well intended do more harm on society than good.

extremely well researched, written and explained. Everyone can benefit by reading this book. Especially Liberals who are mostly to blame.

An Important Book on a key issue

John Cogan has done a superb job of chronicling the history of entitlements beginning with pensions from the Revolutionary War. While there are some issues that I would disagree with, for example, his Romneyesque conclusion that Social Security is the same as other entitlements (explained below) his comprehensive study in a short period of time goes into the ins and outs of this concept.

Social Security is different in part because the underlying assumptions (were this treated as it was originally sold to Congress). The program for retirees in the last decade would be self funded, based on some reasonable investment assumptions. When I retired I summed all of the contributions made to my own SS account and then based on some conservative investment assumptions, estimated the lifetime monthly payment which would be due to me. The number was about double what I receive with Social Security.

That calculation not withstanding, why is it government seems incapable of making honest actuarial assumptions about the future value of various programs and then in the case of contributory programs holding the payments in trust or for non-contributory programs making an honest assessment of the net future value of the promised benefits? The answers are simple. Politicians constantly engage in rent seeking (getting voter's favor by increasing benefits in even numbered years and delaying the true estimates of long term costs) and in log rolling (trading votes where the real value of the trade is passed on to a third party - the voters). Politicians think in cycles that are concurrent with their election cycles while these programs all have longer term costs. So they get the credit and we are stuck with the costs.

There is one issue I have with this audible production. The narrator is the worst I have ever heard on an audible production. The narrator does things like confusing "exasperated" and "exacerbated", and in doing what sounds like a series of over-dubs. There are too many places in the book where the narrator mispronounces even simple words which make the production hard to listen to. As noted in the beginning this book is a substantive and comprehensive treatment of an important subject so it is a shame that the production qualities are so poor.

Read by AI, not a human.

Interesting info but difficult voice to listen to for so long. Technology is getting better but still not quite there yet.

A comprehensive history of entitlements and their fiscal cost.

While this book does not dig into the social effects of entitlements too much it is very much needed to understand the financial effects on the budget and debt. A major take away from this book, no matter how one might feel about entitlements, a government should be very cautious in with them.

Incredibly important. Incredibly depressing.

Cogan provides historic context to how entitlements have evolved, notably he dives into the details of how the dynamics in Congress have almost consistently added new and enhanced existing entitlements.

Two thirds through the book, I was extremely depressed. Madison's reading of the Constitution has been trashed in favor of a Hamiltonian dystopia in the making - no, Cogan doesn't say that, but forgive me for reading that into the narrative.

The few exceptions to the ever expanding entitlements appear to only prove the rule. I was able to get out of my dystopian mindset when I read Cogan's coverage of the 1996 entitlement reform (the personal responsibility and work opportunity and reconciliation act), showing that true reform is possible.

Cogan writes that this is a history book rather than a guide on how to fix the entitlement system. I appreciated the constructive high level thoughts he had on pitfalls policy makers want to consider to make fiscal deficits sustainable.

I would like to thank John Cogan for writing this incredibly important book. It is an absolute must read for any politician. For us mere mortals, I found it most informative; I encourage anyone interested in sustainable government finances to read it.

Cogan may be a bit naive in his pep talk at the very end; that said, we need the naive optimism to have good people working on solutions to the incredibly challenging questions posed in the book.

A brief comment on those feeling entitled to a better audio for the few bucks you paid for the audiobook. The way I look at it, for a few bucks, I gained insight into the wealth of knowledge of Mr. Cogan. It's a dry topic, and I'll be glad to pay anyone else $20 to do a better recording. In the meantime, the recording is just fine, don't let that stop you from listening.

Content, very good. Audio, not so.

The narrator has a good voice, but he often speeds up his reading at beginning of sentences. He doesn’t seem to vary his voice appropriately. Random. Monotone at times. The recording also seems to vary in quality. At times, the narrator seems to be reading from the other end of a pipe. Not long lasting, but bothersome. Not encountered this problem. Re-record.