Difference between revisions of "User:Jers/blog/2012/05/06/1539/Welfare and the Mises Dilemma"
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This trend does not alarm welfare advocates. Adapting to a generous malign-hand reinforcement schedule that has now existed for several decades they, and indeed most European citizens, now regard these kinds of payment as a right. Archbishop of Canterbury the golden-voiced Rowan Williams in an extraordinary article criticized budget-balancing welfare policies initiated by the new UK coalition government in 2011 as a “quiet resurgence of the seductive language of ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor” implying that making this distinction is somehow wrong. Reacting to a 2007 UK report advocating new welfare restrictions, welfare advocates can write things like “If the proposals from the recent … review are accepted, the idea that lone parents are entitled to benefits on the basis of their role as a parent will be eroded, and may ultimately disappear from the social security system.” (my italics) In other words, these folks are treating a child as something like a natural disaster that has befallen the mother. The welfare mother is to be treated as a victim of an event – in this case conception – over which she had no control. | This trend does not alarm welfare advocates. Adapting to a generous malign-hand reinforcement schedule that has now existed for several decades they, and indeed most European citizens, now regard these kinds of payment as a right. Archbishop of Canterbury the golden-voiced Rowan Williams in an extraordinary article criticized budget-balancing welfare policies initiated by the new UK coalition government in 2011 as a “quiet resurgence of the seductive language of ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor” implying that making this distinction is somehow wrong. Reacting to a 2007 UK report advocating new welfare restrictions, welfare advocates can write things like “If the proposals from the recent … review are accepted, the idea that lone parents are entitled to benefits on the basis of their role as a parent will be eroded, and may ultimately disappear from the social security system.” (my italics) In other words, these folks are treating a child as something like a natural disaster that has befallen the mother. The welfare mother is to be treated as a victim of an event – in this case conception – over which she had no control. | ||
All sorts of justification are offered for this attitude, but perhaps the most popular highlights the paramount importance of the child’s welfare. The lone parent must be helped else the child will suffer. In short, children are treated like hostages to be ransomed by the state. National Lampoon magazine captured this logic well in a famous cover several years ago. [[File:Lampoon.png|right]] Nevertheless, as the ''Civitas'' comment pointed out, giving generous welfare benefits to lone parents is likely to create more such children, not fewer, in the future. Present good for a few leading to future harm for many – the malign hand. | All sorts of justification are offered for this attitude, but perhaps the most popular highlights the paramount importance of the child’s welfare. The lone parent must be helped else the child will suffer. In short, children are treated like hostages to be ransomed by the state. National Lampoon magazine captured this logic well in a famous cover several years ago. [[File:Lampoon.png|183px|right]] Nevertheless, as the ''Civitas'' comment pointed out, giving generous welfare benefits to lone parents is likely to create more such children, not fewer, in the future. Present good for a few leading to future harm for many – the malign hand. | ||
The malign effects of the welfare system on other lifestyle choices are harder to see than the ‘lone-parent trap’, as the Brits call it, but they are none the less real. Even in the case of payments for disability, something which, one might think, is pretty easy to assess, fraud is common. Stories like this one are not infrequent in the British press: “An amateur dancer who swindled taxpayers out of nearly £20,000 in disability benefits was spared jail today, after a judge heard how his passion for jazz and swing led to regular performances at care homes.”1 The violent demonstrations in late 2010 by British students protesting an increase in college fees shows the sense of entitlement that a long history of freebies engenders. The ante was upped by country-wide UK riots in the summer of 2011. The rioters were predominantly young people, well-trained to entitlement. | The malign effects of the welfare system on other lifestyle choices are harder to see than the ‘lone-parent trap’, as the Brits call it, but they are none the less real. Even in the case of payments for disability, something which, one might think, is pretty easy to assess, fraud is common. Stories like this one are not infrequent in the British press: “An amateur dancer who swindled taxpayers out of nearly £20,000 in disability benefits was spared jail today, after a judge heard how his passion for jazz and swing led to regular performances at care homes.”1 The violent demonstrations in late 2010 by British students protesting an increase in college fees shows the sense of entitlement that a long history of freebies engenders. The ante was upped by country-wide UK riots in the summer of 2011. The rioters were predominantly young people, well-trained to entitlement. | ||
Revision as of 21:19, 6 May 2012
... more about "Jers/blog/2012/05/06/1539/Welfare and the Mises Dilemma"
It is usually thought good for someone who … It is usually thought good for someone who has more than enough to help someone who has less. It is not so obvious that it’s good for one person to take from a second to give to a third who may be in need. Yet that is what government welfare entails: forced taking from one group of people to give to another group. Welfare like this may serve a larger social end, but it rests on uncertain moral ground. I believe that it is also likely to fail on practical grounds. Welfare is another example of what I have called elsewhere the malign hand.</br></br>Welfare has two effects:he malign hand].
Welfare has two effects: +
15:39:00, 6 May 2012 +