(Book Review) This is probably the best and most detailed analysis of the moral justifications for the welfare state. Exactly what one would expect from Dr. Kelley, one of today’s leading philosophers. I particularly enjoyed the history of private philanthropy. Kelley shows that the welfare state was not a response to inadequacies of private philanthropy, but derives from the idea that people had right to be free from the restraints of reality. According to this idea, people should not be constrained by the fact that they have to earn a living or die, or that they get sick or injured, or that they grow old, or that they have to create shelter to live in. An excellent book and a must read for anyone interested in the philosophical underpinnings of the welfare state.

BTW: I find it interesting that Dr. Kelley appears to weigh in on the debate about self-ownership or self-sovereignty inadvertently. A number of times in the book he uses these and similar phrases and even quotes Locke’s idea that we have a property right in ourselves. This issue is an ongoing debate that appears to have been created by Leonard Peikoff’s attack on the idea of self-ownership. Dr. Peikoff’s attack is inconsistent with Rand’s own words on point.

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