livefromhooverdc_banner_v2.jpg

highcost-cogan.jpg

The Hoover Institution hosted "The High Cost of Good Intentions" on Wednesday, November 1, 2017 from 12:00pm - 1:30pm EST. 

The Hoover Institution & Director of Washington, D.C. Programs Michael Franc welcomed Hoover Senior Fellow John F. Cogan for a discussion of his new book: The High Cost of Good Intentions: A History of U.S. Federal Entitlement Programs. 

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. His work provides a unifying explanation for the evolutionary path that nearly all federal entitlement programs have followed over the past two hundred years, tracing both their shared past and the financial risks they pose for future generations. 

 

Upcoming Events

Tuesday, June 6, 2023 4:00 PM PT
US and China Chess Pieces
A Fresh Start: Safeguarding People, Rights, And Research Amid US-China Competition
The Hoover Project on China’s Global Sharp Power, the Asian American Scholar Forum, and the Committee of 100 invite you to A Fresh Start:… Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Wednesday, June 7, 2023 5:00 PM PT
siberia
The Siberia Job | A Book Event
The Hoover Institution hosts The Siberia Job | A Book Event on Wednesday, June 7, 2022 at 5:00 pm PT. Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Thursday, June 8, 2023
Foundations-of-Long-Run-Prosperity-June.jpg
Inputs to Prosperous Economies
The Hoover Institution hosts Inputs to Prosperous Economies: Spring 2023 Conference Of The Working Group on the Foundations of Long-run Prosperity on… Hoover Institution, Stanford University
overlay image