tent and therefore that a no-risk society is impossible. The sooner people recognize that all solutions are imperfect, the sooner this society will be content with a balance between individual and societal rights. Once government regulation is checked, society can devise a system that functions within pragmatic limits. Hence the allocation of risks will be based upon considerations of efficiency, justice, and equity rather than blindly mandated by a federal bureaucracy.
It is too easy to ask the government to solve all of our problems. Aharoni reminds us that if Americans are sincere about wanting less federal interference in their lives, they must change the rules of the game wherein politicians are elected by promising cradle-to-the-grave security. The no-risk society is a costly illusion. It has sapped our strength and made us tentative. But it need not paralyze our national will. For, as President Reagan and this timely book remind us, Americans can either choose the responsibility that accompanies individual initiative, or continue drifting toward the false security of collectivization. The correct choice may involve a calculated risk, but it also improves the odds for our ultimate redemption as a free society.
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