The Price of Citizenship: Refining the American Welfare State

Michael Katz's monograph on the end of AFDC and the rise of market systems as the preferred solution to everything is not the wittiest and most readable book one could have on the subject. Nor is it the most passionate. But it is thoroughly documented and it manifestly shows how the attack on the welfare state in the nineties has increased inequality and decreased security for most Americans. Katz starts off with a fine description of poverty and inequality in the modern American city. He emphasizes, as others have, the very generous government and public support for suburbia at the expense of the inner city, especially in transport and housing. Suburbia's most privileged and coddled residents then turned around to denounce any welfare and assistance to people not like themselves as the most horrendous abuse imaginable of taxpayer funds. More, I think, could have been said about the rise of the conservative ascendency, particularly the weakness of the Democratic Party and trade unions to serve or to mobilize any liberal alternative.Katz then goes on to provide useful and informative chapters on governors as welfare reformers, mayors as welfare reformers, the limits of private charity, the decline of employer benefits, increased risks for the injured and disabled and unemployed, "reform" of social security, new market models for health care, the fate of food stamps and legal services and the end of welfare. Each chapter is useful and will be very illuminating for those who only read The New Republic. Consider the case of John Engler's welfare reform, which boasted of its removal of people from the welfare rolls and their placement in paying employment. But how much of this was the result of the reforms and how much was it that of a booming economy? A study found that when compared to a control group, Engler's programs had increased adult employment by only 2.4%. And in Detroit 60% of children under five still lived in poverty in 1996. The even more hyped case of Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin (now the Secretary in charge of getting hysterical over anthrax) is even more convincingly deflated. Thompson's Learnfare, a program of denying benefits to families whose children do not attend school, certainly seemed tough and punitive, but even state agencies agreed it hadn't actually increased school attendance. It may appear encouraging that from 1987-1995 Wisconsin's AFDC payroll dropped by a nearly a quarter. But 75% of that decline occured in his first term, before his plans had time to take effect. The centrist Democratic mayor of Philadelphia has been much praised, but the city was still losing people and perhaps 27% of the population was below the poverty line. Privitization in Indianopolis actualy increased long-term debt, while taxes rose and homicides beat new records in 1994 and 1997.Empowerment zones are also deflated: "In June 1999 the Philadelphia empowerment zone reported that it had helped businesses create four hundred job

Katz is a historian on welfare in the United States. This book is a history book about welfare. It is a very balanced and objective book, because the author tends to NOT write any of his own opinions, and instead, just uses the opinions of others. This is a good thing for 2 reasons: (1). You aren't as likely to be getting the author's bias meshed in with the writings (2). You get a BETTER historical view of welfare, and the different sides. Now, I'm not sure if Katz is a liberal. He doesn't really ever go into what he thinks, or what his views are on the different issues of welfare. What I am sure is that he presents BOTH SIDES of the debate on welfare. Not only do you get to read the opinions of the liberals who are for welfare, but you get to read all the opinions of conservatives against it. This is how historical books are supposed to be presented, and this is how Katz' Price of Citizenship is presented. The reviewer below who talks about Katz making all these liberal assumptions obviously didn't read the book. Katz opinions in the matter are absent in the book. The ONLY case you could make about Katz creating a libral-bias side FOR welfare is by saying he gives more credence to liberal views than conservative views by presenting more, or better written liberal views than conservative views. Well, I didn't notice any such thing at all.Now, I'm not going to pretend like this book doesn't seem to hint at giving any sort of credence to a political ideology. Its conclusions do seem to give more credence to the liberal side of the welfare debate than the conservative one. But is that because the author is creating biased arguments in favor of liberal positions? Nope. Read the book. You'll be amazed how objective this book is considering it deals with such an emotional, hot political topic. You know, sometimes, one side of the political spectrum may have more truth in its favor than the other side. When presenting these truths, this hardly counts as bias, or rhetoric. Its been my experience that neither political side (liberal or conservative) has a monopoly on the truth. Sometimes, when you take an objective look at a certain issue, and examine ALL the facts, one side is going to come out ahead. Thats just life. THere's no liberal or conservative conspiracy going on.For those of you who've read Charle's Murray's Losing Ground (which I have), it is HARDLY a liberal equivalent. There is a surprisingly absense of political rhetoric, or emotional arguments in this book. It is truly a perfect example of how one CAN ACTUALLY learn some real truths about a political topic that has biased rhetoric from both sides of the political spectrum.If you really want to learn something about welfare, and the recent history of welfare (i.e. welfare in the 90's) and all the recent debates about it, then read this book. Read it ESPECIALLY if you are like me, and are tired of reading countless partisan books from both sides time and time again when researching politi

With "The Price of Citizenship," Katz performs a much needed demystification of the ways in which the social welfare state and the poor have been attacked and continue to be attacked by social and fiscal conservatives under the guise of consumer choice and the chimerical promise of the marketplace as the best of all possible ways to administer "welfare." A work of breathtaking scope, Katz examines each of the programs of the welfare state -- Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Unemployment Insurance, AFDC ("welfare"), Public Eduation, etc. -- gives a brief history of the inception of each, and then gives a recent history of how each program has come under attack by the forces of business and and their shortsighted friends in government.Here's how they do it, according to Katz: Using the same master narratives of sorting citizens into deserving and undeserving categories to begin the assault, then tightening the screws on the "undeserving," the conservative business forces follow up with the panacea of the marketplace as the be-all and end-all solution: get those lazy minority mothers off the dole and into jobs; close down the loopholes in unemployment so that no one will qualify; drive people slowly toward the assumption of more and more risk by scaring them with junk statistics on the imminent demise of Social Security and then offering them the "solution" of mutual funds -- etc., etc., etc. The strategy is always the same: the market will knit up the ravell'd sleeve of care, when in fact it really serves to unravel the social safety net for those who need it most, and, weaves new money-making nets for others in the name of "efficiency" and "choice." These special stronger nets are the new welfare schemes for corporations and the upper and upper middle class. One of the finest chapters deals with underhanded manipulation by conservatives of the public with regard to viability of Social Security. Katz convincingly shows that Social Security is not in any danger of going bankrupt -- period. He shows how the forces arrayed against Social Security, through misinformation, through the politics of playing younger workers against older workers, has managed to convince most Americans that they will either not recieve their benefits or recieved reduced benefits. Indeed, until I read this chapter, I was one sheep among the many. He then goes on to show how the various "choice" schemes proposed to "fix" Social Security through investment in the stockmarket -- either individually or collectively -- would serve to make financial companies billions and billions of dollars. In every chapter, Katz follows the money, and, sadly it usually leads to the ultra-right think tanks whose clients most stand to profit from the privatization of government social welfare programs. It may sound by this review that "The Price of Citizenship" is a muckraking screed. Or that it was written by a conspiracy nut. It is neither. Instead it is a deeply researched