Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Tracking the life-cycle of the welfare state

Thanks to Steve Wrathall on Whale Oil who drew my attention to this illustration:


If you think this is only a contemporary observation, past welfare states (eg legislated parish-collected compulsory tithing) exhibit the same life cycle.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love this cartoon & I loved your contribution on whale oil yesterday - perfectly put as usual.

The end of welfare does start with one idea - personal responsibility.

We need to inspire the next generation to want something more, to strive for something more than merely seeing what they can get from the State.

Life is about what you contribute to the world not what you expect others to give you.

~ unsolicitedious

Anonymous said...

Nothing will inspire the multitude of bludgers than the certainty that they WILL starve in the gutter unless they take personal responsibility for themselves.

State hospitals, state schools, welfare, super are all completely rational responses to living in a country with a welfare state. And that is why the only effective welfare reform is abolition - crucially abolition ending "benefits" for all current bludgers not just in some indefinite future.

Jigsaw said...

The worst thing is that welfare state ends in compulsion and coersion. In my lifetime I have seen its once great ideals first stagnate and then become currupted. I don't believ it can last more than a few generations before the bludgers bring it down.