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Sawing off the ladder to success.

Article Excerpt
STEALING FROM EACH OTHER: How the Welfare State Robs Americans of Money and Spirit

By Edgar K. Browning

226 pages; Praeger, 2008

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In the Sherlock Holmes short story "Silver Blaze," the key to solving the case was recognizing that something didn't happen--the dog didn't bark in the night. Few people (like Dr. Watson) are inclined to think about the importance of things that did not happen, but we can make great mistakes if we fail to do so.

Texas A&M economics professor Edgar Browning's new book Stealing from Each Other implores us to think like Holmes did and economists do when they contemplate opportunity costs, namely what we give up when we choose to do X rather than Y. Specifically, he wants us to consider the opportunity costs of our vast federal welfare system. What do we give up when we choose to have the federal government engage in widespread income redistribution? What does not happen?

Browning's answer is" a great deal of output. He estimates that our GDP would be at least 25 percent larger if it weren't for our host of programs and taxes comprising the welfare system. He regards this as a bad tradeoff and makes a powerful case for abolishing federal income transfers and adopting a "just say no" policy toward any suggestions for more of them in the future. (Browning is fine with states...

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