An Overproduction of Comfortable Do-Gooders

[January 9, 2026]  An overproduction of comfortable do-gooders is the theme of the book The Heavenly City by Harvard Professor Edward Banfield.  A recent article by Judge Glock caught my attention due to the 2025 revised version of this prescient 1970 book.

This article is not a book review, but rather an examination of the main ideas of Professor Banfield, focusing on what he perceived as the primary urban problem: the dysfunctional culture of the lower classes.  In the revised book, Banfield warns us about the dangers of a guilt-laden elite that tries to remake society and inevitably fails.

“Although Banfield shared fears about the increasing number of children in broken, welfare-dependent homes, he was more worried about the overproduction of comfortable do-gooders.” – Judge Glock in A Dose of Civic Realism

The book’s title may be misleading to some, as it implies the fall of American cities. However, Banfield went to great lengths to say that there was no “urban decay,” a notion often believed.  The reason that his contemporaries declared an urban crisis was due to rising expectations.  

“In regard to some of the festering problems in urban areas, Banfield noted that declaring something a problem implied that it was amenable to a fix. Most of the problems in cities were not.” – Judge Glock.

Banfield says that the solutions or fixes to these problems in our cities were beyond our ability.  For example, residential segregation was to some extent the result of the preference of races and ethnicities to be near similar people. Even if this segregation were problematic, there were no plausible solutions, so it should not have been regarded as an issue that warranted political intervention or even discussion.

His concern about the most persistent urban problems involved people with a short-term time horizon who could not defer present pleasures for future rewards. It therefore tended toward erratic employment, low education, and crime.  Banfield believes these problems will always be with us and that no fix doesn’t cause greater problems.

According to Glock, the book’s title is not “an attack on cities populated by a predatory lower class but on the impulse of reformers to construct” an unachievable goal.  This desire stems from a pervasive sense of guilt, accompanied by a limited understanding of the limitations that solutions can achieve.  This social perfectionism is most apparent among those in the upper classes.

“Banfield posited a sort of cultural contradiction of American society at the same time Daniel Bell was reflecting on the cultural contradictions of capitalism. The upper classes’ orientation to the future and their tendency to hold themselves responsible for their actions created stable and productive communities. But their attempts to impose their utopian futurism on others and to assume personal guilt for even remote social ills had destructive consequences.” – Judge Glock

Banfield’s book reminds us that clever ideas for social transformation should be regarded with a gimlet eye.

Ultimately, Banfield was less worried about the increasing number of children in broken, welfare-dependent homes than about the overproduction of comfortable do-gooders.

”Banfield’s prediction about the increased danger of high-class meddling, although upon first glance his most absurd, is by far his most prescient. Banfield noted that increasing education and income caused people to pay less attention to their own ills, but to have “increased feelings of guilt at ‘social failures’ and more outrage at a ‘guilty society.’” – Judge Glock

His book is a classic and should be read to help us form better arguments on how to improve our cities.  And, we should view with suspicion the largess of money spent on welfare programs in attempts to improve the condition of those less fortunate.  Too, we need to be aware of this “social guilt” complex that drives this ideology that mankind can be forced to be better.

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Please read my books:

1. “55 Rules for a Good Life,” on Amazon (link here).
2. “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).