Indeed Lindert concludes that ‘the net national costs of social transfers, and of the taxes that finance them, are essentially zero’. Two of Lindert’s major conclusions are that the spread of democracy has historically played a pivotal role in the rise of social expenditures and that social spending has not gravely weakened economic incentives and long-term economic growth, despite the drumbeat of criticisms from free-market devotees. Amazingly, Lindert comes up with fresh, convincing, and important insights on issues that have been debated for decades. He takes on one of the grand topics of economics - the rise of social spending-and offers us a remarkable combination of new data, historical insight, political analysis, and economic assessment. ‘Peter Lindert has written a dazzling book. ‘… a monumental history of two centuries of social spending …’ Contrary to the intuition of many economists and the ideology of many politicians, social spending has contributed to, rather than inhibited, economic growth. This book not only shows that no Darwinian mechanism has punished the welfare states, but uses history to explain why this surprising result makes sense. Contrary to traditional beliefs, the net national costs of government social programs are virtually zero. What kept prospering nations from using taxes for social programs until the end of the nineteenth century? Why did taxes and spending then grow so much, and what are the prospects for social spending in this century? Why did North America become a leader in public education in some ways and not others? Lindert finds answers in the economic history and logic of political voice, population aging, and income growth. Taxes and transfers have been debated for centuries, but only now can we get a clear view of the whole evolution of social spending.
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