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Stealing from Each Other: How the Welfare State Robs Americans of Money and Spirit

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Professor Browning has done everyone a favor by taking his 20 years of teaching economics to Texas A&M students and translating his course work into an easily digestable book. Be forewarned if you have high blood pressure the information presented may cause you to blow a gasket. Professor Browning uses facts not emotional arguments to show, that the welfare system, which is nothing more then taking from the haves and giving to those who politicans believe are the have nots in the United States, can't be justified, and costs America more then it delivers. A GREAT read. I highly recommend this book. Once you're done pass it on so that another person can have their eyes opened to the reality of redistribution of wealth and how it's causing us to lose our freedom.

This book covers an array of important issues from taxes to social security to poverty programs. From part of a piece that I had at Fox News this week where I discuss just a small portion of his book:

A new book, "Stealing from Each Other, How the Welfare State Robs Americans of Money and Spirit" by Edgar Browning, an economics professor at Texas A&M University and a world-renowned expert on government finance, has added up the costs and consequences of the existing programs.

By 2005, the Ways and Means Committee in the House of Representatives pointed out 85 separate programs that primarily aided persons with limited incomes. Total federal, state, and local expenditures amounted to $620 billion. That came to $16,750 per person in poverty, or over $50,000 for a welfare family of three, several times higher than the official poverty line for a family of three, which was $15,577 in 2005.

Browning estimates that only 10 percent of these expenditures went to administrative costs. He provides some perspective: "We are already spending more than enough to completely eliminate poverty, even if the poor have zero earnings or other sources of income on their own." The official government estimates of the number of poor people rarely count the government aid when calculating the poor's income. Browning also notes that there are so many programs and some are so complicated, "no one understands fully how the welfare system operates."

Yet even these numbers underestimate how much help the government spends on the poor. For example, Social Security does not provide benefits that are proportional to what people pay into the system. The system provides large transfers from high-income to low-income individuals. Browning estimates the welfare portion of Social Security accounts for $100 billion a year. According to him, adding this to Medicare, other uncompensated medical care, and other costs increases welfare payments to over $1 trillion in 2005.

By comparison, Browning has noted elsewhere that the first five years of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars cost $473 billion, less than half what the war on poverty spent in one year.

The dust jacket description of this book concludes by stating: "Intended for a general audience, Stealing from Each Other covers everything informed citizens need to know about inequality, poverty, welfare, Social Security, taxation, and the true costs of government redistributive policies." Although I don't know whether it covers "everything", it is certainly an eye-opening treatment of these issues that will change the way you think about how government policies affect our economy and our standard of living. This book makes clear that the news media conveys a lot of misleading information on these topics.

For example, did you know that the government now transfers more than a trillion dollars a year to low income families through dozens of welfare and social insurance policies? And that despite this expenditure the poverty rate is virtually unchanged over the last forty years? How could all this be spent to so little effect? Read Chapter 6 to find out.

But perhaps the most interesting chapter is the one on Social Security. I think I finally understand why so many people think it is the most pressing problem we confront.

This book is a must read during an election season when the "economy" is the big issue.

We found Dr.Edgar Brownings book, Stealing from Each Other, utterly enlightening in disclosing the actual verifiable and often surprising facts of our economy, welfare system, tax system, job prejudice, poverty, and fairness amongst the well established myths common in America. He clarifies by arguing all points of view leading the reader to obvious practical conclusions. His sound solutions are hard to refute! A must-read for anyone who cares about our welfare and our economy.

Sharmai & Keith Amber, Co-Hosts, Mastering Ourselves Radio

As a talk show host, I read a book not only for its content, but also for its context and veracity. As such, I almost always source an author's endnotes to make sure that they are accurate and actually reflect or reinforce the point that the author is trying to make. Dr. Browning's work has no holes in it whatsoever. Someone opposing it would have to dig deep into a vein of mendacity to concoct such an argument.

"Stealing From Each Other" does exactly what it sets out to do, in verifiable and reason based ways - explain the disincentives caused and liabilities imposed, by the current welfare state. His book is a demonstration of the effect of reason over emotion.

Most guests get one hour to make their point. Dr. Browning got 90 minutes, and you can listen to the result at [...] . The man is fascinating.

Charles Heller
Liberty Watch Radio
www.libertywatchradio.com/listen

This is the first time I've ever written a review. I'm only writing this in response to Frank's 1-star review. I haven't read the book, but he obviously hasn't either since all his quotes are from the review provided by amazon. Judging by the all caps writing style and the numerous spelling errors, Frank is either a 13 year old girl or a welfare recipient himself. Even though I haven't read the book I commend it for fighting the notion that giving a man a fish is better than teaching a man to fish. The welfare state is grotesque and a direct violation of the 10th Amendment...You know the one that says the powers not granted to the federal government by the constitution reside with the states or the people.

This book makes a good case that we should stop stealing from each other. Unfortunately, the people that love transfer payments will likely not read it, or if they were to read it, would not believe a word of it. Many of these people firmly believe that there is a fixed size pie to divide. They will never believe that the pie could be bigger if we all help make it so. Therefore, they want "their share" of the pie, which they can get by electing politicians to give it to them.

Professor Browning's Stealing from Each Other is a splendid philosophical and economic critique of the modern welfare state. It is concise and easy to read. In fact, I found it hard to put down. It's as fun to read as Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics, Friedman's Free to Choose or Alan Reynolds' Income and Wealth. One need not have training in economics or finance to understand the ideas or facts presented; it's written for a general audience.

In part, Professor Browning asks why egalitarian wealth redistribution might breed animosity. His answer (at least part of it):

"By their nature, transfer programs ensure that people have diametrically opposed interests, and opposing interests are often divisive. Social Security pits the young against the old, the federal income tax positions the wealth against the middle class, affirmative action sets whites against minorities, and so on. The political maneuvering surrounding these and other redistributive issues exacerbates or even creates conflict among groups and antagonisms and distrust become more common. As Robert Higgs expresses it: "People lose their sense of belonging to a common political community. Instead, fellow citizens regard each other as either patsies or moochers, and feel personal hostility toward those who appear to be net gainers from the system."

People become so inured to seeing groups receiving special benefits from government programs that they can easily rationalize securing benefits for themselves in this way. After all, "everyone does it" and "I have paid my taxes, and I deserve to get something back." In the end, everyone is stealing from everyone else, and it is not clear who really benefits from the smaller economic pie."

This, of course, is just a glimpse of what the author offers in his book. The above is an example of his clear and well-reasoned arguments. Great book!

Could the answer to America's economic problems be using the model of a government of one hundred and eight years ago? "Stealing From Each Other: How the Welfare State Robs Americans of Money and Spirit" is Edgar K. Browning's, a professor of Economics at Texas A&M University, solution to America's woes by calling out the welfare state. Stating that America as a whole is harmed more than helped by the policies, he calls for a removal of them, including social security. A collection of unique, but financially sound ideas for America, "Stealing From Each Other" is a must for community library economics and social issues collections.

This is an excellent book. It has a great section on inequality in the United State and different ways we should measure this inequality. Browning effectively critiques the various ways other researchers have measured inequality overtime. He explain how consumption is likely a better measure of well-being and thus analyses should examine how consumption inequality has changed over time.