Like any other potent social medicine, government assistance to the needy often causes unpleasant side effects. The welfare state means new security for the millions who do not share the nation's affluence. But it also means public intervention in private lives, job-shirking relief chiselers who loaf at government expense, and tax burdens that soar higher every year. Can the side effects be nullified without crimping the cure? Last week one city answered with a resounding yes —and in the process, Newburgh, N.Y., gave the nation cause for some sober second thoughts on...
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