American Way of Welfare

In The American Way of Welfare: Providing for those who can’t provide for themselves, Chris Pope challenges conventional views on poverty, inequality, and taxation. He details how the conceptual social safety net has ballooned to functionally substitute rather than supplement income. Pope shows how the United States taxes lower-income earners much less than European countries, while taxing the rich comparably. His analysis shows that European welfare systems primarily redistribute income from the working poor to non-workers, a tragic result of a flawed system.

Join CEI for a book forum featuring Chris Pope on The American Way of Welfare and common misconceptions of this entitlement program, in conversation with Kent Lassman.

When: ​​​​​​12:30 – 2:00 pm
Wednesday, August 5, 2026

Luncheon followed by book forum.

Where: Competitive Enterprise Institute
1310 L St NW, 7th Floor, Washington, DC 20005

Questions: [email protected] or 202.331.2764

Register

Chris Pope is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and the author of The American Way of Welfare. His research focuses on entitlement reform, insurance markets, and healthcare payment policy. Previously, Pope was director of policy research at West Health, health-policy fellow at the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and research manager at the American Enterprise Institute.  He holds a B.Sc. in government and economics from the London School of Economics and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Washington University in St. Louis.

Kent Lassman is president and CEO of the feisty and principled Competitive Enterprise Institute. Reforming broken regulatory institutions and removing the unnecessary burdens they produce has taken him across America, to more than a dozen countries, and deep into the dysfunction of the federal government. An optimist by nature, he is a Virginian by choice and is outdoors at every opportunity.