I read Hazlitt a few weeks back, and with the gloomy stats he provides on the increasing influence of the welfare state, I am forced to ask for solutions to the welfare state problem.
To be honest, I feel quite helpless. Everyday I turn Indian newspapers I find economists in my country asking us to look at developed countries which spend so much percentage of their GDP on social security. The usual wisdom everywhere is that the State has to take care of the poor. I really can prove these people wrong. But how does anybody, as a simple rule of thumb, understand the adverse effects of the welfare state? After all, educating everybody with market economics doesn’t seem to be a very practical thing.
Or, if you are really set on doing something, perhaps encourage even more of it , possibly become an expert in the field and then educate others on how to receive ever more benefits at others expense.[:)]
There’s a lot of good reading material listed in this thread, specifically pertaining to socialism and its ills. Social Security is a pyramid scheme. One question to pose: If SS really is so brilliant, why does the government need to hold a gun to our heads in order to extract contributions?