[PREV - THUROW]    [TOP]

MURRAY

Charles Murray wrote a book called _Losing
Ground_, that pushes the thesis that the
liberal social programs beginning with
Johnson's "Great Society" are literally
useless.

   The heart of the book is some trendline
   analysis that shows a steady reduction
   of numbers of people below the poverty
   line-- until government social spending
   kicks in, and then all progress stops.

Murray's explanation of this
might be called the standard
conservative line: government
welfare programs are seductive,
once you're on them there's little
incentive to try to improve your
earnings, because once you do you
lose the income from the welfare,
from your point of view you have
to put in a lot of work just to
stay in one place before things
can get better.

There are a number of obvious
responses to his trendline analysis,
most of which he claims to have
covered... whether he really does
have it all covered is a complicated
question.

As far as I can tell, he sometimes plays
with the way his numbers are presented
to make his case look a little stronger.
I haven't found anything completely
outragous, though.

                                  I've looked at some of the
                                  criticism of the book... Lester
                                  Thurow screams like a stuck pig,
                                  but says very little that's coherent
                                  about it...

                                  Probably his most interesting
                                  point is that Murray doesn't
                                  mention the GI bill, which is
                                  a case of government
                                  intervention which most people
                                  agree was beneficial.


                 But then, the GI bill was
                 also a one shot deal, that
                 no recipient planned on in
                 the first place.



--------
[NEXT - MONOPOLY]