Anarchism and Welfare

[BabylonHoruv]

This is a pretty good dissection of the differing views on welfare held by anti-statists.  The quoted bit is from an article called "Neither State Nor Market: An Anarchist Perspective on Social Welfare" by Steve Millet that is not available online and basically sums up the Anarchist view on it (if anarchism is defined in the traditional, socialist way rather than anarcho capitalism)  the article is clearly written from a left-anarchist perspective but the libertarians are quoted in context and their perspective is, IMO fairly well enunciated.

http://propertyistheft.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/anarchist-communism-public-services-and-the-welfare-state/

    Any definition of society should include an ability to take care of the welfare of its members, not just those members who have a privileged place in the social hierarchy. Welfare should be an intrinsic part of any society, therefore, not simply a functional extra. This requires that society is organized first and foremost to provide welfare. What anarchism calls for is the re-absorption of the provision of welfare into the daily lives of the citizens of the community. Welfare thus becomes not simply a function—something provided by a system or the workers in a system—but part of the everyday life of the community and its citizens.

    ...

    The failure of the State to provide social welfare should not be seen as undermining the idea of social welfare itself, but of invalidating the role of the State; welfare is inextricably linked to empowerment, which is why State-provided welfare is always going to have minimal success. At the same time we should be under no illusions as to what the effects on the poor will be of the paring down of what State provision there is in the name of the market: without a viable alternative, the market simply means sink or swim, and to sink means poverty, destitution, homelessness, even death. The attempt to free welfare from the State cannot be left to the free marketeers of the Right. The need for a democratic and participatory alternative to the Welfare State has never been more urgent.

[Doktor Howl]

[The Johnny]

i think they just speak thru their ideals and needs goggles...

welfare cant be done even if the state wanted to right now. the state has been weakened after decades of neoliberal politics.

even if it was possible, welfare should be structured within a logic of being used for reintegration to society and to overcome exclusion, not just handouts that dont help people get anywhere

[Don Coyote]

[Telarus]

 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

[BabylonHoruv]

i think they just speak thru their ideals and needs goggles...

welfare cant be done even if the state wanted to right now. the state has been weakened after decades of neoliberal politics.

even if it was possible, welfare should be structured within a logic of being used for reintegration to society and to overcome exclusion, not just handouts that dont help people get anywhere

I would agree that welfare isn't really possible at the moment because of neoliberalism, however I don't think that is somthing that is left out of the article or that the idea of welfare as integration into society is left out of it.

The anarchist ideal of welfare as a universal value doesn't exclude reintegration and training and so forth.  Also, some people do actually require handouts, those in poverty shouldn't for longer than it takes to climb out of it but the handicapped still do.

[Doktor Howl]

Johnny, you are aware that Babylon is a snuff freak, right?

[East Coast Hustle]

What's that got to do with anything?

I mean, we're all free to ignore him for being such a disgusting individual, but it doesn't mean we should expect some sort of orthodoxy in the matter.

[navkat]

Oh, wow. I thought the "corpsefucker" thing was just a new tag we were throwing around now...like asshat. I didn't realize you were describing someone who really likes to insert his peenoid into expired meat friends.

[Don Coyote]

Oh, wow. I thought the "corpsefucker" thing was just a new tag we were throwing around now...like asshat. I didn't realize you were describing someone who really likes to insert his peenoid into expired meat friends.

Oh no, it is directly tied to sickfuck muderrapist BH. I can't think of any instances in which that tag was directed at anyone who wasn't murderrapist.

[Prince Glittersnatch III]

Johnny, you are aware that Babylon is a snuff freak, right?

Wait, like ACTUAL snuff?

[navkat]

What the fecal? Why isn't he like, in jail? Why is he even here? I'm pretty sure killing and raping motherfuckers is grounds for bannination, no?

Or

[Freeky]

He isn't in jail because he presumably hasn't done anything to land him there.  He did mention it, though, and the fact that he wrote snuff porn to deal with it.  It was in an unrelated conversation, so I'm not sure what made him do it, other than to gross out/disturb everyone.

[navkat]

where's the thread?