RE: ECONOMICS: Reality bites

From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rms2g@virginia.edu)
Date: Wed Oct 09 2002 - 15:18:25 MDT


 Olga wrote:

> One concession I'd make to libertarians is that, if there is going to
> be a social welfare framework, there should be an opt-out mechanism
> for those who want to eschew the costs and benefits. This doesn't
> exist for most people today (opting out of any particular regime's
> influence is not possible for many people), which is a bad thing. I
> don't have any good details on how you'd implement such a proposal,
> off the top of my head, sorry.
>

### I doubt that such details could be invented. After all, the recipients
of welfare (the non-working class, the parents who don't have to pay for
their children, the government teachers who don't have to compete for
vouchers, the smokers who don't have to pay for the medical care they
receive, and the affirmatively helped ones) are not the same as the payers
(the working class, parents who do pay for their children, honest teachers
who want to work for the students rather than the government, people willing
to pay for their own medical care, and the Asian-Americans who are
discriminated against because of their race). If the payers could opt out,
you'd be left with payees only, which is not likely to satisfy any of their
perceived "needs".

Rafal



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