In fall of 2017 I started a new position as manager of external affairs for the Hoover Institution’s Washington, D.C. office. A primary function of the D.C. office is to, “promote the academic work of Hoover fellows and to facilitate the engagement of fellows in the policy conversations that take place in the nation’s capital.” To a large extent, this involves hosting Hoover fellows from California, and on November 1, 2017 the first fellow we hosted in my tenure with the organization was John F. Cogan, the author of The High Cost of Good Intentions: A History of U.S. Federal Entitlement Programs. It took me a while to read the book, but quality time flying across the country for my first visit to Stanford University in an official capacity was the perfect setting to accomplish the bulk of the reading. (It’s fitting that I finished the first book I received on the job during the flight for my first visit to the main office, but if we’re being honest, I really should have finished the book a few months ago – no judging please!)

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The book’s central theme is that the creation of entitlements brings forth relentless forces that cause them to inexorably expand.

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