The focus of this book is narrow but its implications are wide. Public welfare, the latest born of government services, raises deep questions about the nature of society. Who should be given help, how, and at whose expense? Should welfare go beyond minimal aid to destitute people? Should rehabilitation, retraining, and environmental control be added to the list? Should the benefits be extended to people who are far from being destitute? And what obligations have people who support themselves for the well-being of those who do not?

Mass unemployment in advanced societies puts an edge on these questions. The unemployed suffer distress when others, over whom they have no control, fail to provide work. This situation may be attributed to international dislocation, ill-conceived national policy, or miscalculation by business leaders. As economists are seldom able to agree on the distribution of blame, the obligations of society are not easy to determine.

Whatever the theoretical problems, most national governments accept responsibility and meet the cost from taxes, to which the rich must contribute a high proportion of their income. In the United States, during the Great Depression, it was difficult to arrive at this solution because public responsibility was divided by the U. S. Constitution and further subdivided by state constitutions, and because the redistribution of wealth by fiscal policy had always been resisted. What was required was not the enlargement of existing public commitments and an increase in taxes, but fundamental changes in concepts of social obligation and government power.