What do you think?
Rate this book
The Crisis of Dependency: How Our Efforts to Solve Poverty Are Trapping People in It and What We Can Do to Foster Freedom Instead
The Crisis of Dependency shows how everyone can claim their birthright of dignity, hope, and freedom.
—KRIS MAUREN, President and Cofounder, Acton Institute
This book will change your life, make you a better person, and enable you to be a more powerful asset in your community.
—TARREN BRAGDON, President and CEO, Foundation for Government Accountability
In The Crisis of Dependency you will discover key underlying issues that hold back millions of Americans from escaping chronic poverty and homelessness. You will also learn how many well-intended charitable programs undermine self-determination and fail to restore dignity. And you will see how growing government intervention crowds out more relational and effective approaches. The final three chapters will equip you with practical ideas that inspire hope for individuals and communities to reverse the current crisis of dependency. This is the book every true humanitarian has been waiting for.
—LAWRENCE W. REED, president emeritus, Foundation for Economic Education
The Crisis of Dependency will provide a breakthrough in your thinking so you can move away from perpetuating dependency to charity that achieves real freedom.
—TOM DE VRIES, President and CEO, Citygate Network
JAMES WHITFORD earned his doctorate from the University of Kansas Medical Center before he and his wife, Marsha, founded Watered Gardens Ministries in 2000. Then in 2012, they established True Charity, a local initiative that evolved into a national training organization championing the resurgence of civil society in the fight against poverty.
Their work has been featured in The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Culture and Opportunity, The Christian Post, The Hill, and WORLD News Group—which also honored their work at Watered Gardens Ministries with their 2019 Hope Award. James has testified before the US Senate and US House subcommittees on poverty and welfare reform, advocating a shift from harmful government handouts to more effective relationally-based charity. The Whitfords have five children and seven
grandchildren, live in Southwest Missouri, and enjoy fishing the James River.
—KRIS MAUREN, President and Cofounder, Acton Institute
This book will change your life, make you a better person, and enable you to be a more powerful asset in your community.
—TARREN BRAGDON, President and CEO, Foundation for Government Accountability
In The Crisis of Dependency you will discover key underlying issues that hold back millions of Americans from escaping chronic poverty and homelessness. You will also learn how many well-intended charitable programs undermine self-determination and fail to restore dignity. And you will see how growing government intervention crowds out more relational and effective approaches. The final three chapters will equip you with practical ideas that inspire hope for individuals and communities to reverse the current crisis of dependency. This is the book every true humanitarian has been waiting for.
—LAWRENCE W. REED, president emeritus, Foundation for Economic Education
The Crisis of Dependency will provide a breakthrough in your thinking so you can move away from perpetuating dependency to charity that achieves real freedom.
—TOM DE VRIES, President and CEO, Citygate Network
JAMES WHITFORD earned his doctorate from the University of Kansas Medical Center before he and his wife, Marsha, founded Watered Gardens Ministries in 2000. Then in 2012, they established True Charity, a local initiative that evolved into a national training organization championing the resurgence of civil society in the fight against poverty.
Their work has been featured in The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Culture and Opportunity, The Christian Post, The Hill, and WORLD News Group—which also honored their work at Watered Gardens Ministries with their 2019 Hope Award. James has testified before the US Senate and US House subcommittees on poverty and welfare reform, advocating a shift from harmful government handouts to more effective relationally-based charity. The Whitfords have five children and seven
grandchildren, live in Southwest Missouri, and enjoy fishing the James River.
144 pages, Paperback
Published November 18, 2024
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 27, 2025
This book is really good (probably 4.5 stars). The author focuses on the causes of poverty during the beginning of the book and then transitions to how we (the ordinary person) can combat poverty.
This book was significantly better than "When Helping Hurts" (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...) and draws from some similar ideas in "The Mystery of Capital" (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...). Some people may read this book and brand it as controversial, but it isn't really; the ideas are just common sense.
However, the book is not as detailed or thorough as I had hoped and is often repetitive with many of the same ideas (I guess another indication that poverty has a simpler solution than we think). Still, this thought-provoking book offers a very good overview on how to combat poverty and homelessness and is definitely and worth the read.
This book was significantly better than "When Helping Hurts" (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...) and draws from some similar ideas in "The Mystery of Capital" (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...). Some people may read this book and brand it as controversial, but it isn't really; the ideas are just common sense.
However, the book is not as detailed or thorough as I had hoped and is often repetitive with many of the same ideas (I guess another indication that poverty has a simpler solution than we think). Still, this thought-provoking book offers a very good overview on how to combat poverty and homelessness and is definitely and worth the read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review