My Columbia colleague Irv Garfinkel recently came out with a book (with coauthors Lee Rainwater and Timothy Smeeding), “Mythbusters: The U.S. Social Welfare State,” where they argue:
The United States is a capitalist nation that has eschewed Scandinavian-style socialist policies in favor of capitalism and economic growth, right? Wrong. The U.S. is not only one of the largest welfare states in the world, but it is strong economically precisely because of its adoption of some socialist policies–with public education as the primary driver.
The American welfare state faces large challenges. Restoring its historical lead in education is the most important but requires investing large sums in education–beginning with universal pre-school–and in complementary programs–including selected cash benefits for families with children–that aid children’s development. The American health insurance system is by far the most costly in the rich world, yet fails to insure one sixth of its population, produces below average results, crowds out useful investments in children, and is the least equitably financed. Achieving universal coverage, which will be nearly accomplished by the recently passed health care legislation, will increase costs but long term costs can be restrained with complete government financing. Such reforms are possible – and will make the U.S. a leader again in both commitment to the social welfare state and a productive, market-based economy.
I haven’t actually seen the book so I don’t know the details backing up their argument, but Irv has always been pretty close to the data so I expect the book is worth a careful look.
Hi,
I'm interested in this book…especially after my domestic social policy class last semester. (I'm working on an applied sociology masters.)
I can't find the book as you've mentioned the title, but looking for the authors found this:
Wealth and Welfare States: Is America a Laggard or Leader?
http://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Welfare-States-Ameri…
Please confirm if this is the same thing?? Thanks!
Yes, that must be it. Perhaps the "Mythbusters" thing was from some press release.
What period of time the expression "historical lead in education" refers to? It seems that historically US was largely moving forward by importing people who were educated elsewhere and definitely was never ahead of, say, Germany or any Scandinavian country education-wise.
Thank you for posting the blog. The title of the book is Wealth and Welfare States. The book begins with and debunks 3 central myths—that welfare states impoverish rather than enrich us, that the US has an unusually small welfare state, and that the US has always been a welfare state laggard. The myth-busters piece is, as you say more like a press release/summary of the many myths debunked. In response to one blogger, the US led the world (including Germany and Scandinavia) in the provision of mass public education throughout most of the 19th and 20th centuries. Finally, Andy, in our discussion of the relationship between the political strength of left and right and the growth of the welfare state, we thank you in footnote 16 of chapter 7 for your help and should have thanked you for pointing out the virtue of looking at statistical data graphically, especially in the face of lags in relationships, which is what we do in Figure 7.1.