Declaring Dependence

The Centre for Independent Studies has been floating this idea for a while. People should be able to opt out of the welfare state. Now they have taken it a step further suggesting people who are dependent and can't run their own lives should declare their position and then forfeit rights to do other things like vote and sit on juries. As the essay writer says, if they can't be trusted to run their own lives why would you trust them to run other people's by selecting governments?

I have immediate questions like why should a person genuinely disabled through no fault of their own or a superannuitant for instance, forfeit these rights? The paper probably answers it but I haven't read through the 43 pages yet.

My gut reaction is declaring independence is attractive but declaring dependence is fraught. Also the paper asserts that the individual has to earn the right to own his own life. Yikes. But it certainly makes for interesting reading. I have scanned a couple of extracts from the introduction below the precis.

Declaring Dependence, Declaring Independence: Three Essays on the Future of the Welfare State By Peter Saunders, John Humphreys, Eugene Dubossarsky and Stephen Samild

Peter Saunders edits this collection of essays which argue that in a time when governments are running up enormous welfare bills and intrusively regulating everyday life, many people do not need to rely on the government to survive. John Humphreys, in his essay ‘Declaring Independence’, says that people who can pay for their own lives should be able to ‘declare independence’ from the nanny state. On the other side of the coin, Eugene Dubossarsky and Stephen Samild, in their essay ‘Declaring Dependence’, suggest that those who need constant help should be able to declare themselves dependent on the government, but that this is conditional on forfeiting their right to vote.