Troubles of the Welfare State

Such as it is in the United States, the welfare state, a term for which exegesis will soon be supplied, came under intense fire even before the OPEC coup slowed economic growth, upset a precarious political detente over the size and direction of social spending, set off a dangerous inflation, and precipitated a current crisis of governmental legitimacy that has paralyzed presidential and congressional responses. For reasons to be examined, social spending, and especially programs aimed at the...