Gaining Ground: Tailoring Social Programs to American Values

This book examines the challenges of aligning American social programs with the nation's deeply ingrained values of individualism, self-reliance, and responsibility, particularly when addressing poverty and other social hazards. Public social provision in the United States faces a paradox: while the necessity of programs like social security is broadly accepted, there is widespread skepticism toward initiatives that appear to relieve individuals of personal accountability. Influential criti...