Saved as reference for LambdaConf 2016 Controversy. I don't endorse, agree with, condone, etc.
The English word for an adult unrelated dependent is “slave.” The transfer of the bulk of the African-American population from the control and responsibility of private masters, to the State, is not a freeing of the slaves. It is a nationalizing of the slaves. (With a brief window of actual independence, not coincidentally the golden age of African-American civilization, between the Freedmen’s Bureau and the Great Society.)
Moreover, in “welfare reform,” we actually see a recognition of this fact. Even liberals realized: since we have nationalized the slaves, we have to make them work. Otherwise, their human condition becomes unmentionable. Fact. Somewhere, Carlyle laughs.
And is welfare reform just? Is it just for USG to make its slaves work? Absolutely! Because they are slaves – to each his own – and the duty of a slave is to work. A dependent who can, but does not, work, is not acting justly – he is cheating his master.
If you are not bold enough to swallow this equation in one step, let us try to reframe it in liberal terms. We might say, for instance: one of the reason that the welfare state is degrading is that welfare payments are not accompanied by adequate personal and professional supervision. We thought our armies of social workers would do the job – not. Yet another government job done badly.
Therefore, one way for USG to deal with the very real, very just responsibility it has accepted for its dependent population is to privatize the responsibility, transferring its wards from public to private charity.
We might say to a ward: instead of USG feeding you, and USG having the right to compel you to work, the Salvation Army will take this charge. You are still a charitable dependent – still a slave. But your new master is an organization that specializes in charity in general, and the rebuilding of human souls in specific – and will probably do a much better job of it.
Of course, this is only a baby step toward the real reprivatization of slavery, ie, allowing private citizens or for-profit corporations to accept the paternal role. As a liberal, you’d probably balk at this. As a philosopher, however, I hope you understand the equivalence.
- from the comments to Biology & Justice: First Cut