Curtis J Hostetler

For previous generations, living within your means was a simple formula. Now, with the staggering rise in health-care, medical, and housing costs, millions of people find themselves skating from paycheck to paycheck with no idea how to move forward.

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. This process - as visible in the 18th and 19th centuries as in the present day - is repeated until benefits are extended to nearly all who could be considered eligible, and in turn establishes a new base for future expansions.