Posted: Jun 09, 2013 11:36 pm
Surely the whole premise of the thread title misses the point?
Welfare programmes were instituted not because of concerns of "economic efficiency", but because they were humane. Moreover, they contribute to the stability of democracies. Look at what happened in Germany in 1929. Hyperinflation left millions destitute, and worse - ordinary Germans were dying of starvation in what should have been an advanced industrial nation capable of feeding its populace. We all know what those destitute millions did in desperation - they turned to whoever offered them quick and easy pseudo-solutions to dig them out of the hole. Unfortunately for 55 million Europeans, those desperate millions turned to Adolf Hitler. The rest, as they say, is history.
I'm wondering if some of the hate-the-poor rhetoric being peddled by the advocates of discredited "austerity economics" isn't a warm-up for a re-run. Erect fake "enemies" in order to provide an equally fake "justification" for the dismantling of properly constituted, humane democracies, and their conversion by stealth into corporate fascist states, run for the benefit of the hyper-rich, with the poor condemned to neo-serfdom or even worse. After all, the last time that Striecher-esque language was used to demonise a subset of the population, the end result was mass murder.
Welfare programmes were instituted not because of concerns of "economic efficiency", but because they were humane. Moreover, they contribute to the stability of democracies. Look at what happened in Germany in 1929. Hyperinflation left millions destitute, and worse - ordinary Germans were dying of starvation in what should have been an advanced industrial nation capable of feeding its populace. We all know what those destitute millions did in desperation - they turned to whoever offered them quick and easy pseudo-solutions to dig them out of the hole. Unfortunately for 55 million Europeans, those desperate millions turned to Adolf Hitler. The rest, as they say, is history.
I'm wondering if some of the hate-the-poor rhetoric being peddled by the advocates of discredited "austerity economics" isn't a warm-up for a re-run. Erect fake "enemies" in order to provide an equally fake "justification" for the dismantling of properly constituted, humane democracies, and their conversion by stealth into corporate fascist states, run for the benefit of the hyper-rich, with the poor condemned to neo-serfdom or even worse. After all, the last time that Striecher-esque language was used to demonise a subset of the population, the end result was mass murder.