"In recent years, workers earnings have hardly grown, violence and crime have plagued the inner cities, homelessness and public begging have become commonplace, and family life has greatly deteriorated. With governments facing large deficits and slowly growing revenues, and public distrust in the efficiency of government and elected officials at all-time highs, the authors ask, ""What can government do for you?"" This book brings together a prominent group of experts to answer this critical question. Edited by Henry Aaron and Charles L. Schultze, two of the nation's most noted and experienced economists, the book focuses on the crucial domestic and social issues confronting America today. Seven vital areas are discussed by the following contributors: Henry Aaron on health care; Gordon L Berlin and William McAllister on homelessness; Linda R Cohen and Roger G. Noll on research and development; John J. DiIulio, Jr., on crime; Frank Levy and Richard J. Murnane on education and training; Isabel V. Sawhill on children and families; and Clifford M. Winston and Barry P. Bosworth on infrastructure. In each problem area, the authors use the results of research and analysis to identify existing or proposed governmental interventions that are likely to work, as well as some that are likely to fail and some that need to be reformed. They then present a budget proposal that not only pays for suggested changes in domestic policy, but brings the budget into virtual balance in ten years. "

According to conventional wisdom, government may intervene when private markets fail to provide goods and services that society values. This view has led to the passage of much legislation and the creation of a host of agencies that have attempted, by exquisitely detailed regulations, to compel legislatively defined behavior in a broad range of activities affecting society as a whole--health care, housing, pollution abatement, transportation, to name only a few. Far from achieving the goals of the legislators and regulators, these efforts have been largely ineffective; worse, they have spawned endless litigation and countless administrative proceedings as the individuals and firms on who the regulations fall seek to avoid, or at least soften, their impact. The result has been long delays in determining whether government programs work at all, thwarting of agreed-upon societal aims, and deep skepticism about the power of government to make any difference. Strangely enough in a nation that since its inception has valued both the means and the ends of the private market system, the United States has rarely tried to harness private interests to public goals. Whenever private markets fail to produce some desired good or service (or fail to deter undesirable activity), the remedies proposed have hardly ever involved creating a system of incentives similar to those of the market place so as to make private choice consonant with public virtue. In this revision of the Godkin Lectures presented at Harvard University in November and December 1976, Charles L. Schultze examines the sources of this paradox. He outlines a plan for government intervention that would turn away from the direct" command and control" regulating techniques of the past and rely instead on market-like incentives to encourage people indirectly to take publicly desired actions.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ Modernizing The U.S. Census Barry Edmonston, Charles L. Schultze, National Research Council (U.S.). Panel on Census Requirements in the Year 2000 and Beyond, United States. Bureau of the Census Barry Edmonston, Charles L. Schultze National Academies, 1995 Mathematics; Probability & Statistics; General; Mathematics / Probability & Statistics / General; Social Science / Demography; Social Science / General; Social Science / Methodology; Social Science / Statistics; United States; United States - Census - Methodology; United States - Census - Planning

American Living Standards contends that the central problem of the U.S. economy has been for some years now, and for the foreseeable future will continue to be, the slowdown in the growth of living standards. This decline began in the early 1970s, was masked by a resort to overseas borrowing in the early 1980s, and now threatens to get worse in the years immediately ahead as the foreign debt bills come due. The editors and contributes to this volume seek to advance our understanding of the causes and consequences of this potential slowdown in the growth of living standards. Equally important, the book examines what policy measure holds out the best hope for presenting, or at the very least, minimizing this slowdown. Various chapters explore the changes in the level and distribution of incomes that have occurred in recent years; changes in the quality and distribution of jobs among industries and regions; what economists do and do not know about recent trends in productivity growth and in the quality of education; and what events could trigger a recession.