Chris
03-28-2017, 10:29 AM
Modern liberalism is a contradiction of aims.
The ugly truth of Canada's welfare state (http://theweek.com/articles/687218/ugly-truth-canadas-welfare-state)
The central project of the liberal welfare state is to build a society based on a high-minded ethic of altruism rather than narrow self-interest. The whole point is to create a new kind of person whose humane commitments are driven by a more cosmopolitan sensibility beyond his parochial attachments to self, family, and clan.
But the opposite has happened: Protecting the welfare state from foreign moochers has become the single biggest stimulus for nativism in the West. That's true in America, Europe, and, most surprisingly, the paragon of compassion to America's north, Canada. The more the welfare state has tried to elbow self-interest out of our accepted understanding of a "just society," the more this self-interest has asserted itself — and in ever-more vexing ways.
It looks at contradiction in US, Austria, Spain, and France.
But the nation that takes first prize in welfare-state protectiveness is the putative paragon of human kindness: Canada.
Canada cannot afford a full-blown case of nativism because it is underpopulated and aging fast — and thus admits more than twice as many immigrants as America, in terms of a percentage of its population. But to protect its "universal" health-care system from foreigners, Canada ruthlessly tips its entry standards toward the young and healthy.
Old people have a very hard time getting into the country....
But Canada's real harshness is directed toward the disabled, against whom it has maintained a de facto ban for decades....
...if America and Europe are becoming more insular to guard their welfare states, Canada is becoming more exclusive. All of this flies in the face of using the welfare state to create a "just society" full of compassion and caring communities....
The ugly truth of Canada's welfare state (http://theweek.com/articles/687218/ugly-truth-canadas-welfare-state)
The central project of the liberal welfare state is to build a society based on a high-minded ethic of altruism rather than narrow self-interest. The whole point is to create a new kind of person whose humane commitments are driven by a more cosmopolitan sensibility beyond his parochial attachments to self, family, and clan.
But the opposite has happened: Protecting the welfare state from foreign moochers has become the single biggest stimulus for nativism in the West. That's true in America, Europe, and, most surprisingly, the paragon of compassion to America's north, Canada. The more the welfare state has tried to elbow self-interest out of our accepted understanding of a "just society," the more this self-interest has asserted itself — and in ever-more vexing ways.
It looks at contradiction in US, Austria, Spain, and France.
But the nation that takes first prize in welfare-state protectiveness is the putative paragon of human kindness: Canada.
Canada cannot afford a full-blown case of nativism because it is underpopulated and aging fast — and thus admits more than twice as many immigrants as America, in terms of a percentage of its population. But to protect its "universal" health-care system from foreigners, Canada ruthlessly tips its entry standards toward the young and healthy.
Old people have a very hard time getting into the country....
But Canada's real harshness is directed toward the disabled, against whom it has maintained a de facto ban for decades....
...if America and Europe are becoming more insular to guard their welfare states, Canada is becoming more exclusive. All of this flies in the face of using the welfare state to create a "just society" full of compassion and caring communities....