Your take on Welfare State

[Ganbare!]

EDITED.

Is it desirable for you/society as a whole?

I think it's the model that could give talented individuals regardless of their background the opportunity to create in all spheres of human activity. Shared resources also means less crime, longer life expectancy and an overall happier society. I don't believe taxation prevents risk-taking and innovation, we have the example of Scandinavian economies leading in biotechnologies or telecommunication etc.

To be more concrete, my postsecondary education has cost me 2000$ Canadian dollars/year funded by the government and because of the modesty of my household income, my grad school's tuition fees are free and I even got a scholarship, our academic partners are Ivy League universities, LSE, Waseda.. Roughly half of the French ministers are alumni, not exactly community college I could've afforded if I were American, this is where Welfare State comes into play, real upward social mobility for hard-working people not the illusionary discourse about it.

I think we've seen the results of ethnic and poor ghettos, crime, lack of educational attainment and health issues costing governments much more money than subsidzing housing, health and education.I'm still amazed at how selection on wealth is still viewed as the ultimate model (its negative influence on policy makers around the globe is scary), it produces a small powerful elite that governs the US and to some extent the rest of the world while a large part of its population have third-world-like living conditions (I'm not kidding the UN measured the level of development of the American underclass and it equates Bangladesh's HDI) while countries like Norway with high 'communist' taxation have both higher GDP per capita and life satisfaction.

[betahat]

Intergenerational income mobility in the US is about as low as it has been for decades and does not compare favorably with many European countries. I think the right way to frame and sell the welfare state is (1)equality of opportunity, which means primarily good subsidized public education and (2) a minimum decent standard of living, which means no one should starve or die, even if they are lazy good-for-nothings. I'm afraid that most conservatives do not agree with us on those two points, so unless they were to grant that the eternal struggle must continue. Of course, part of this is related to the issue of communitarianism you raised in the other thread - it seems like countries that are more ethnically and culturally homogeneous (or where the minorities are not so greatly disadvantaged socioeconomillay)have an easier time implementing and maintaining welfare-state policies.

[Ganbare!]

I'll never get this human irrepressible urge for power, the current form of capitalism revolves around an unfair allocation of the added value between capital owners and workers, wages are too low for the working class or worse jobless to live decently thus pushing a minority into crime because of material frustration. This in return affects the very same capitalists forced to invest in videosurveillance, alarm systems etc to protect themselves, wasting everyone's time and money.

There is no doubt, kidnappings Brazilian-style will become commonplace in a near future on US streets as a result of the recession and growing influence of South-American gangs. Mark my words.