Some Thought Provoking Comments: 1. On Capitalism in Crisis, 2. OnThe Welfare State and Civil Society

Comments are often ignored. Some, though,  are more insightful than the blogs themselves. Here are 2 excellent comments that I have read this week.

1. On The Becker Posner Blog, both Becker and Posner have been debating the FT topic “Capitalism in Crisis” The following comment made me think of many European governments spending more than 50% of its citizens GPD.

Unfortunately, what we can see in western Europe and US has nothing to do with capitalism. Among other deformations, huge amount of activities which are in capitalism performed by entrepreneurs are carried out by governments. If we ask “is capitalism in crisis” in this situation, this question is meaningless. (Posted by: Ed)

2. Via an Post Imagine There’s No Welfare, Its Easy if You Try by Marc Eisner on the Pilius blog I came across the following comment which puts across a point I wished to make, this week’s earlier post, Civil Society. At Ace of Spades, one commentator linked to the post (with the tag: “Americans seem to have difficulty imagining a time when there was no pervasive government-run welfare state”) commented the following:

“There was a time when the arm of the federal government did not reach far at all, and citizens had to rely on themselves, their friends, their families, and their communities for help and support. And you know what? It worked, mostly. … Misery and hardship is the lot of humanity on this earth. Yet our forbears managed to not only get by, but to build the greatest nation in the history of the world…and they did it without an overbearing, interfering, smothering nanny state monitoring their every breath. There was a time before the welfare state, folks. Honest”

I truly believe that society left to its own devises is human enough to find a better substitute.