Ownership and government: President Bush's proposed ownership society invites a history lesson: the great American middle class is the fruit of social investment.(REDEEMING GOVERNMENT)

"OWNERSHIP," PRESIDENT BUSH told the Republican national convention last August, brings security, and dignity, and independence." It is an assertion few Americans would dispute--and one that we should welcome. For it turns out that Bush's proposed policies would frustrate his stated goal.

Bush's version of an ownership society is both ideological and tactical. His political strategists believe that a society of self-consciously individual owners can wean Americans from their political support for social outlays. If people see their financial well-being as ...

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