High Cost of Good Intensions

High Cost of Good Intensions: A History of U.S. Federal Entitlement Programs  by John F. Cogan, Stanford University Press, 2017. 

The author gives a detailed narrative of America’s growth and development social welfare state. It began with providing pensions to soldiers who had served in the Revolutionary War (1775–1783). It continued in the provision of pensions for disabled veterans of the War of 1812  (1812-1815), the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), the Civil War (1861-1865), Boxer Rebellion (1900), the Philippine Insurrection (1899-1902), World War I (1917-1918 for the U.S.). At first, only veterans with war-related disabilities were provided with pensions, but over time, veterans with non-combat disabilities were also included. Then pensions were extended to veterans who were not disabled. 

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, our president during the Great Depression and World War II, argued that all old Americans should be taken care of, not just veterans. With the 1935 Social Security Act, a basic part of the New Deal, FDR expanded federal benefits to also include those who had never served served in the military. 

After World War II, there has been a gradually relaxation of the requirements a woman must satisfy in order to receive government help. At first, federal and state governments provided help only for women whose husbands had died. Later, this charity was extended to women who had been divorced, deserted, separated, who had never been married, and their children, even if illegitimate. In 1965, a health care program for old people, Medicare, was established. Later Medicaid, which provided health care for poor Americans, was created. The cost of these programs to the taxpayer was grossly underestimated at the time of their initiation.