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In his by-request post on safety nets, Tyler writes:
Most of all, the welfare state liberates the productive and the creative from their sometimes burdensome family ties. The welfare state is the Randian’s secret dream, and that is what clinches the case for a government safet ... Continue reading »
Most of all, the welfare state liberates the productive and the creative from their sometimes burdensome family ties. The welfare state is the Randian’s secret dream, and that is what clinches the case for a government safet ... Continue reading »
2 years ago
In some ways the welfare state simply replaces the bonds between parent and child with ones between individual and state. But other times the new relationship is more complex; the power dynamics are changed.
Now Mom and Dad can live of Social Security and Medicare while I travel around the world. Sure.
But it's also the case that I can escape from home, hit the streets, develop a drug habit, steal, etc. etc. and end up "in the system."
Or perhaps I'll go off to college and then get a grant to make documentary films overseas. The state can fund my dreams! No more relying on the provincial and stultifying bonds of family, community, etc., etc.
In addition to mutating our obligations and opportunities, the Welfare state just straight up changes the pay-outs and incentive structure of all of our lives.
That's why Abraam DeSwaan says that the implementation of the Welfare State is as big a reform as the introduction of Representative Democracy.
2 years ago
This is similar to Tyler's take on tenure. He claims it's great for the stars, who do most of the work. But stars are the ones who would keep their jobs anyway.
2 years ago
2 years ago
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2 years ago
If the thing we all have in common is that we pay for each others' health care, then all our health care is done. We don't have to worry about it. We sort-of already do this, by the way, with insurance, but because the insurance is profit-motivated, it doesn't accept as much risk and is exclusionary.
So we already have a collectivist health care system mapped into capitalism, with some middle-men ending up really rich, at the expense of those whose conditions are risky to insure.
If my parents can't afford insurance, I end up being tied to them in a way that demands a sacrifice of my creativity. And the only reason this occurs is because some middle-men get to set the terms of the insurance policy, so that they can make money.
Taking the profit motive out, we end up with insurance for whoever needs it. Suddenly, my parents aren't uninsurable any more, and I am free to support them to whatever degree I choose, allowing me to maximize my individual economic liberty.
The middle men don't like this fact, and they'd really like to keep their stranglehold on my creativity. But should we let them?
2 years ago