Thirty years ago, the great national debate was how to help ordinary, workaday Americans achieve the good things in life. Today, we are preoccupied with--and increasingly divided over--how to cope with the problems of poor and dependent Americans, most of whom cannot or will not work at the jobs available. Mead provides overwhelming and disturbing evidence that passive poverty--the failure of most of the poor to work at all--reflects defeatism more than lack of opportunity. In this controversial book, Mead proposes concrete steps to overcome the inertia of the nonworking poor trapped in the...
Thirty years ago, the great national debate was how to help ordinary, workaday Americans achieve the good things in life. Today, we are preoccupied wi...
"Good government" is commonly seen either as a formidable challenge, a distant dream, or an oxymoron, and yet it is the reason why Wisconsin led America toward welfare reform. In this book, Lawrence Mead shows in depth what the Badger State did and--just as important--how it was done. Wisconsin's welfare reform was the most radical in the country, and it began far earlier than that in most other states. It was the achievement of legislators and administrators who were unusually high-minded and effective by national standards. Their decade-long struggle to overhaul welfare is a gripping...
"Good government" is commonly seen either as a formidable challenge, a distant dream, or an oxymoron, and yet it is the reason why Wisconsin led Am...
People who participate in debates about poverty - and its causes and cures - often speak from religious conviction. But those underlying commitments brought to bear on specific policy choices. experience, academic expertise and political commitments together in this informed discussion of a vexing public issue. Mary Jo Bane writes of her experiences running social service agencies, work that has been informed by Catholic social teaching and the catholic sensibility that is shaped every day by prayer and worship. discusses the role of nurturing Christian virtues and personal responsibility as...
People who participate in debates about poverty - and its causes and cures - often speak from religious conviction. But those underlying commitments b...
If government tells dependent people how to live today, will we have a more self-reliant society tomorrow? That's the critical question as government increasingly seeks to supervise the lives of poor citizens who are dependent on it, often in return for supporting them. This trend is most visible in welfare policy, where "welfare reform" largely means attempts to require adults receiving assistance to work or stay in school in return for aid. However, it can also be seen in policy toward the homeless, where shelters increasingly set rules for their residents; in education, where states...
If government tells dependent people how to live today, will we have a more self-reliant society tomorrow? That's the critical question as governme...
