The High Cost of Good Intentions
A History of U.S. Federal Entitlement Programs
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Narrated by:
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Terry Ross
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By:
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John F. Cogan
About this listen
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)
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Ezekiel J. Emanuel, a professor of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania who also served as a special adviser to the White House on health-care reform, has written a brilliant diagnostic explanation of why health care in America has become such a divisive social issue, how money and medicine have their own American story, and why reform has bedeviled presidents of the left and right for more than one hundred years.
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The book lacks integrity
- By Richard M. Shaner on 06-02-16
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FDR's Folly
- How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression
- By: Jim Powell
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In the minds of historians and the American public alike, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of our greatest presidents, not least because he supposedly saved America from the Great Depression. But as historian Jim Powell reveals in this groundbreaking book, Roosevelt's New Deal policies actually prolonged and exacerbated the economic disaster.
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Scones for the Tea Party
- By Chiefkent on 06-11-12
By: Jim Powell
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How Are You Going to Pay for That?
- Smart Answers to the Dumbest Question in Politics
- By: Ryan Cooper
- Narrated by: Ryan Cooper
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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How Are You Going to Pay for That? is filled with engaging discussions and detailed strategies that policymakers and citizens alike can use to assail even the most entrenched lines of neoliberal logic and start to undo these long-held misconceptions. Equal parts economic theory, history, and political polemic, this is an essential roadmap for winning the key battles to come.
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Yay, Taxes!!!
- By Luvelway on 02-19-24
By: Ryan Cooper
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JFK and the Reagan Revolution
- A Secret History of American Prosperity
- By: Lawrence Kudlow, Brian Domitrovic
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Who invented supply-side economics - the idea that cutting tax rates can result in more growth, more prosperity at all income levels, and even more tax revenue flowing into the IRS? Most people would credit the economic team that advised Ronald Reagan in the late 1970s and early 1980s. But in fact supply-side economics came of age two decades earlier. And the first president who embraced it was one of the biggest icons of the Democratic Party - John F. Kennedy.
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Turn the speed up to 1 1/2 to 2 times
- By B. MIDDLETON on 09-15-16
By: Lawrence Kudlow, and others
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Race for Profit
- How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership
- By: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Race for Profit uncovers how exploitative real estate practices continued well after housing discrimination was banned. The same racist structures and individuals remained intact after redlining's end, and close relationships between regulators and the industry created incentives to ignore improprieties. Meanwhile, new policies meant to encourage low-income homeownership created new methods to exploit Black homeowners.
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Race for Profit
- By Hewti on 12-03-20
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Liberty Lost: American Big Government and the Erosion of the U.S. Constitution
- A Brief History
- By: Michael Dahlen
- Narrated by: Joe Nagle
- Length: 1 hr and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Nineteenth-century America was the closest thing to pure free-market capitalism that has ever existed. There was no welfare state, no central bank, no deficit spending to speak of, no fiat money, and no income tax for most of the century, and no antitrust laws or federal regulatory agencies until the end of the century. During the 20th century, by contrast, American liberty declined as the size, scope, and power of government exploded. Federal spending, taxes, deficits, and debt have spiraled out of control.
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US political/economic evolution explained
- By Jannie Meisberger on 06-25-16
By: Michael Dahlen
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A Crisis Wasted
- Barack Obama's Defining Decisions
- By: Reed Hundt
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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This book is the compelling story of President Obama’s domestic policy decisions made between September 2008 and his inauguration on January 20, 2009. Unlike all other presidents except Abraham Lincoln - who decided not to allow slavery to expand westward before he was sworn in - Barack Obama determined the fate of his presidency before he took office. The results of these fateful decisions led to Donald Trump taking his place eight years later. This book describes how and why these decisions were made, and discusses whether the outcomes could have been different.
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Somewhat complicated, not audiobook material
- By Mariana Nolasco on 09-20-20
By: Reed Hundt
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Building the New American Economy
- Smart, Fair, and Sustainable
- By: Jeffrey D. Sachs, Bernie Sanders - foreward
- Narrated by: Rudy Sanda
- Length: 4 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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With a nation seemingly more divided than ever, many worry that Americans risk losing ground on solving the complex, interrelated problems the country faces - including rising inequality, the specter of climate change, astronomical health care costs, and economic stagnation. The renowned economist Jeffrey D. Sachs offers a practical approach to move America toward a new consensus: sustainable development.
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If only....
- By Baboo TH on 01-24-18
By: Jeffrey D. Sachs, and others
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Aftershock
- The Next Economy and America’s Future
- By: Robert B. Reich
- Narrated by: Robert Reich
- Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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The author of 12 acclaimed books, Robert B. Reich is a Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and has served in three national administrations. While many blamed Wall Street for the financial meltdown, Aftershock points a finger at a national economy in which wealth is increasingly concentrated at the top - and where a grasping middle class simply does not have the resources to remain viable.
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Very plausible assessment of our economy
- By CAR TOP CAMPER on 10-06-10
By: Robert B. Reich
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The Centrist Manifesto
- By: Charles Wheelan
- Narrated by: Charles Wheelan
- Length: 3 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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From debt ceiling standoffs to single-digit Congress approval ratings, America’s political system has never been more polarized - or paralyzed - than it is today. As best-selling author and public policy expert Charles Wheelan writes, now is the time for a pragmatic Centrist party that will identify and embrace the best Democratic and Republican ideals, moving us forward on the most urgent issues for our nation.
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Must read for all rational americans
- By CM on 09-15-15
By: Charles Wheelan
What listeners say about The High Cost of Good Intentions
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Curtis J Hostetler
- 12-10-20
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.
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- Bam Bam
- 10-22-21
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.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jonathan Brown
- 05-12-22
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.
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- Frank E. W. Zazanis
- 09-30-24
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.
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- Axel Merk
- 08-20-21
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.
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- Richard Mckenzie
- 11-22-20
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.
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2 people found this helpful