The Enemy of the Family

Dear Reader--

In a recent article, Scott of Adelaide Conservative has attempted to defend the Welfare State from a pragmatic Conservative viewpoint.

As much as I hate to quote Libertarians - Han-Hermann Hoppe in Democracy : the God that Failed makes some good points against this point of view - showing the innately pernicious nature of Welfare State to Traditional Conservative values, in particular that of the Family:

By subsidizing with tax funds (with funds taken from others) people who are poor (bad), more poverty will be created. By subsidizing people because they are unemployed (bad), more unemployment will be created. By subsidizing unwed mothers (bad), there will be more unwed mothers and more illegitimate births, etc.

Obviously, this basic insight applies to the entire system of so-called social security ... of compulsory goverment "insurance" against old age, illness, occupational injury, unemployment, indigence, etc. In conjunction with the even older system of public education, these institutions and practices amount to a massive attack on the institution of the family and personal responsibility. By relieving individuals of the obligation to provide for their own income, health, safety, old age and childrens education, the range and temporal horizon of private provision is reduced, and the value of marriage, family, children and kinship relations is lowered. Irresponsibility, shortsightedness, negligence, illness and even destructionism (bads) are promoted, and responsibility, farsightedness, diligence, health and conservatism (goods) are punished. The compulsory old age insurance system in particular, by which retirees (the old) are subsidized from taxes imposed on the current income earners (the young), has systematically weakened the natural intergenerational bond between parents, grandparents, and children. The old need no longer rely on the assistance of their children if they have made no provision for their old age; and the young (with typically less accumulated wealth) must support the old (with typically more accumulated wealth) rather than the other way around, as is typical within families. Consequently not only do people want to have fewer children-and indeed, birthrates have fallen in half since the onset of modern social security (welfare) policies - but also the respect which the young traditionally accorded to their elders has diminished, and all indicators of family disintegration and malfunctioning, such as rates of divorce, illegitimacy, child abuse, parent abuse, spouse abuse, single parenting, singledom, alternative lifestyles, and abortion have increased.

....

In any case what should be clear now is that most if not all of the moral degeneration and cultural rot - the signs of decivilization - all around us are the inescapable and unavoidable results of the welfare state and its core institutions. Classical, old-style conservatives knew this, and they vigorously oppossed public education and social security. They knew that states everywhere were intent upon breaking down and ultimately destroying families and the institutions and layers and hierarchies of authority that are the natural outgrowth of family based communities in order to increase and strengthen their own power. They knew that in order to do so the states would have to take advantage of the natural rebellion of the adolescent (juvenile) against parental authority. And they knew that socialized education and socialized responsibility were the means of bringing about this goal. Social education and social security provide an opening for the rebellious youth to escape parental authority (to get away with continuous misbehavior). Old conservatives knew that these policies would emancipate the individual from the discipline imposed by family and community life only to subject it instead to the direct and immediate control of the state. Furthermore, they knew, or at least had a hunch, that this would lead to a systematic infantilization of society - a regression, emotionally and mentally, from adulthood to adolescence or childhood. (p. 195-198)

Let me just say that I find Traditional Conservatism more convincing than Social Democratic Conservatism that all the countries of the Western World have been subject to. The answer to the question of Public Opinion in regard to the Welfare State is not to modify Conservatism to suit Public Opinion but to try to change Public Opinion to a more Conservative awareness of the Harm it causes.

Yours sincerely,
Mild Colonial Boy, Esq.