John Cogan on Entitlements and the High Cost of Good Intentions

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🗓️ 12 December 2017

⏱️ 66 minutes

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Summary

John Cogan of Stanford University's Hoover Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about Cogan's book, The High Cost of Good Intentions, a history of U.S. entitlement policy. Cogan traces the evolution of government pensions beginning with Revolutionary War vets to the birth and evolution of the Social Security program. Surprises along the way include President Franklin Roosevelt as fiscal conservative and the hard-to-believe but true fact that there is still one person receiving monthly checks from the Civil War veterans pension program. The conversation concludes with Cogan's concerns over the growing costs of financing social security payments to baby boomers.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:08.0	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:12.0	Our website is econtalk.org, where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast,
0:17.0	and find links and other information related to today's conversation.
0:21.0	We'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done going back to 2006.
0:27.0	Our email address is mailadycontalk.org. We'd love to hear from you.
0:33.0	Today is November 16, 2017.
0:35.0	My guest is economist and author John Cogan.
0:38.0	He has the Leonard and Shirley Eli Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:43.0	His latest book, which is the topic of today's conversation, is The High Cost of Good Intentions,
0:49.0	a History of US Federal Entitlement Programs.
0:52.0	John appeared previously on econtalk in July of 2006.
0:59.0	Talking about health care, which was the 12th episode of econtalk.
1:03.0	John has been a long time, although we've talked since then, but it's a long time since having you on the program. Welcome back.
1:09.0	Well, thank you, Russ. I delighted to be back, and I assure you that I have been doing some work besides this project
1:17.0	between 2006 and now.
1:19.0	But I better just feel that way.
1:21.0	Pardon me?
1:22.0	I bet it doesn't feel that way. It's a big book.
1:25.0	No, it doesn't. But I am delighted to be back in your show. Let's go ahead.
1:32.0	I said it's a big book. I don't want to discourage any purchasers or readers. It's not super long. It's a little under 400 pages.
1:40.0	But it's a very comprehensive and remarkably clearly written book on the history of the federal government's role
	...

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