Show Me the Money

In his new book, In Our Hands, Charles Murray proposes a radical overhaul of our national entitlement system.

In his new book, In Our Hands, Murray offers what he calls "the Plan": Halt all government entitlement programs and redistribute tax money directly to citizens. The Plan is elegantly simple. When you turn 21, you begin receiving monthly income from the federal government--deposited directly into your bank account--that totals $10,000 a year. This grant keeps coming, month after month, until the day you die.

Not everyone gets to keep the full $10,000. Once your salaried income hits $25,000, the size of your grant diminishes gradually until those making above $50,000 get only $5,000 a year. The only condition is that you not be in jail--once you're out of the pokey, you get the money. (Last, Jonathan. "The $10,000 Question" 4/7/06)

Now, I'd like an extra $10,000/year as much as the next guy, and the system Murray is proposing is apparently more cost effective than our current system, but I'm a little skeptical. While it may provide lower income workers with health insurance and a more secure retirement if they spend their money wisely, it also seems to run the risk of having the same effect as welfare pre-1996, namely the institutionalization of poverty among those most dependent upon these monthly stipends. Now, I'll withold judgment on The Plan until I've actually read the book, but the sense I have now is that it's too good to be true.