"Libertarians and the Welfare State"

Mark Thoma comments on "Libertarians and the Welfare State". He is of the opinion that since everyone benefits from labour flexibility, everyone should support the workers in their unemployment.

He concludes that:

The source of the insecurity for workers is the system we live under, capitalism. It's better than any other system yet devised at providing for our needs, but within this system changes in preferences, changes in technology, management errors - all sorts of things out of the worker's control can cause them to become unemployed. Because it's a risk that's due to the system we live under, the cost of insuring against it should be shared by all those living within the system and benefiting from it, i.e. the cost should be shared across the entire population. The burden of paying for capitalism's dynamism and flexibility shouldn't be limited to the individual or the individual's family. So I don't see any contradiction in saying that families should not be required to provide this insurance, but "complete strangers" should.

Emphasis Mine

The nature of the Capitalist system is that the workers are expendable in favour of capital. You cannot expect Capital to be nice because the workers are hurting.

Read more!