Sunday, June 07, 2015

Why welfare got of control - in a sentence

Good essay from the Heritage Foundation this morning. (The historic  parallel scenario applies to NZ equally. In this country European founders also formed a system of social assistance, "Charitable Aid", but administered it locally and tightly. Read David Thompson's A World Without Welfare: New Zealand's Colonial Experience)

Further into the essay:

Until the mid-1960s, free markets, secure property rights, strong family policy and minimal taxation and regulation supported a culture of work and entrepreneurship. But through the rise of modern liberalism’s redefinition of rights and justice, welfare was officially reconceived as a right that could be demanded by anyone in need, regardless of conduct or circumstances.
Exactly.

2 comments:

Mark Hubbard said...

Wow. Clarity. Definitely borrowing this.

Anonymous said...

"Why welfare got of control - in a sentence?"

The universal franchise.


The universal franchise explains pretty much everything about the NZ welfare state (which started at least as far back as 1890), the crises in central and local government, and even the so-called Auckland "housing crisis").

Return the franchise back to the conditions of 1860 say - at least as far powers for taxing and spending are concerned - and all these problems will take care of themselves.