Nicholas Eberstadt
In ,A Nation of Takers,: ,Americaâ€™s Entitlement Epidemic,, one of our countryâ€™s foremost demographers, Nicholas Eberstadt, details the exponential growth in entitlement spending over the past fifty years.Â As he notes, in 1960, entitlement payments accounted for well under a third of the federal governmentâ€™s total outlays. Today, entitlement spending accounts for a full two-thirds of the federal budget. Drawing on an impressive array of data and employing a range of easy- to- read, four color charts, Eberstadt shows the unchecked spiral of spending on a range of entitlements, everythingÂ from medicare to disability payments. Â But Eberstadt does not just chart the astonishing growth of entitlement spending, he also details the enormous economic and cultural costs of this epidemic. Â Â He powerfully argues that while this spending certainly drains our federal coffers, it also has a very real,long-lasting, negative impact on the character of our citizens.Â Also included in the book is a response from one of our leading political theorists, William Galston. In his incisive response,Â he questions Eberstadtâ€™s conclusions about the corrosive effect of entitlements on character and offers his own analysis of the impact of American entitlement growth.Â Â 
Economics,Politics,Nonfiction,Literature,American,Philosophy,Politics,Government
A Nation of Takers: Americaâ€™s Entitlement Epidemic