

Libertarian Charles Murray: The welfare state has denuded our civic culture - spikels
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/libertarian-charles-murray-the-welfare-state-has-denuded-our-civic-culture/#the-rundown

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kijin
I agree that basic income can and should replace a large number of incredibly
inefficient welfare programs that we currently have. This, along with the fact
that a lot of regulations that are meant to protect workers will become rather
unnecessary -- who cares about unions when you can afford to quit? -- is
probably what gives basic income a curiously bipartisan appeal. The left can
support it because it's welfare on steroids. The right can support it because
(they think) it will lead to fewer regulations.

But I couldn't care less about the romanticized ideal of civic culture that
this dude pretends existed in America before the welfare state appeared.
Especially since his version of civil culture involves neighborhood groups
taking charge of nearly everything the government used to do. After all, the
government cut them a check. Why can't they just put out their own fires in
their spare time?

And why does he think it's okay to deny basic income to everyone under 21,
just to make sure that the policy does not influence people's reproductive
choices? His far-right libertarian ideology of "minimize the government at all
costs" seeps into and not-so-subtly distorts his vision of basic income.
Reduction of government size, if any, should be a side effect of basic income,
not its very purpose.

