Throughout the modernized world, a massive, bureaucratic apparatus of state welfare has been built up since the 1940s. This book examines the major deficiencies of the welfare state: the incoherence of its underlying philosophy; its redundancy in an era of prosperity and progress; its costs; its inefficiency; and the harm it does to those it should help by driving them into underclass dependency. Practical proposals for radical reform are outlined, combining self-reliance, privatization, and a new deal for the deprived and disadvantaged.