Usually when someone hears the term welfare or a welfare system one automatically assumes that this must be a State function. I disagree that the State needs to be the one rolling out and funding a communities welfare system. This is not a radical call to jump from where we are right to a purely free(d) market mutualistic non-Welfare Statist system. It is, however a defense of getting rid of the Welfare Statism to be replaced over time and incrementally by non-Statist alternative welfare systems.
I defend going from Welfare Statism to true mutual aid and mutualistic Capitalism. The mistake many people make is to think that market based methods of assistance must also mean a profits based system. I would argue that the ideal is market based not for profit systems of community based welfare. Mutual aid is what helped those in need long before the existence of the Welfare-Statism that exists today.
Just like how education and training used too be done by non-state entities such as the family and churches. So to community welfare always existed long before the existence of Welfare-Statism. Mutual aid societies took care of those in need by pooling together in voluntary cooperative groups and then using that pool to pay for those that need help in society. I am defend going back to a welfare system like this. Transitioning over time from what we have now to market based mutualism.
Mutualistic market forces would and will provide for assistance for those in need. Mutual aid along with voluntary charities is all that is needed to make sure there is a safety net, but, not one that is Statist in anyway. There is a false assumption that Capitalism is anti-cooperation or cooperative forms of business/property. Capitalism simply has one rule; that your use of your property does not harm others or infringe the innaliable God Given rights of your fellow man. It can be private cooperatives, privately owned joint property, privately owned Corporations, partnerships or any voluntarily created group you decide to make.
In a truly free(d) market all property holders can form whatever profit or non profit entities they wish to make. Then the individuals making their choices within the marketplace of choices will determine whom stays or goes based on consumer choice/laws of supply and demand. Those whom provide the best safety net will prosper and those that treat their clients wrongly will eventually go out of business as their clients leave for their competition. Under Welfare-Statism there is limited choice and there is never any reallocation of resources to where it is best used.
One possible way this could work already existed here in Charlottetown for decades. The Co-Op grocery system. Co-Op stores had a membership system which could be used for other forms of safety net assistance. Simply become a member pay a reasonable fee and then use that pool of membership money to help with those in need. Making it so the members all get help with whatever it is they need help with. We could have such Co-Ops for all kinds of assistance needs.
This would than be able to remove the Welfare-Statism out of our system and is a worthy direction to shoot for in the long run. In the short run and in a directional way a Guaranteed Income Floor of some kind still provided by the State would be better than the current Welfare System. This could be a Negative Income Tax tied to a livable income level (while income tax is not itself transitioned away from).
Or it could be a Libertarian Decentralized form of Basic Income Guarantee for those whom are out of work or under-employed. It should be tied to ones work or income level and not just given out willy-nilly as some arguments for an income guarantee support. I support a safety net and a welfare system, but, ideally NOT a Welfare State. However, I am realistic and pragmatic not utopian. I do not think this will happen overnight and I do not support pressing a red button and abolishing the Welfare State in an instant. As I see that causing all kinds of horrible unintended consequences.
Yet, knowing the direction we want to go in and where we want to end up helps us know what we should or should not support along that way. As Ayn Rand used too say about taxation being transitioned away for voluntary funding; complete removal of the Welfare State is the last step not the first in the direction we want to go. We need to be careful and incremental in how we transition from Statism to a properly Limited Government. We do not want to cause chaos we need to maintain some form of order. However, ultimately we need to get back to mutual aid/mutualism and away from our current Welfare-Statism system.
