more personal responsibility - less government

[mahogany]

As much as I like the idea of government sponsored safety net - I often think the price of having the government as a caregiver is too high. It's not even the fact that we pay for it through our taxes. The money of it through higher taxes isn't even the part that bugs me. I guess it's some residue of my leftist tendencies from my youth, but I do feel responsibility for the wellbeing of others. Over the past few years, I've the increasing belief that the government should not be the caregiver of the people. We give up too much in personal freedoms, and it leads to disasters like this heartbreaking situation:

http://sites.google.com/site/homeschoolinginsweden/sweden---the-next-germany-/the-state-abduction-of-dominic-johannsson

http://friendsofdomenic.blogspot.com/p/because-they-loved.html


I don't even think this is a slippery slope. I think what's happening with this case in Sweden is the natural and inevitable result when people give up the personal liberties in exchange for an extensive social safety net.

ETA: This is excellent - LONG, but excellent: http://youtu.be/rEED4yFltCE

Comments

[mahogany.livejournal.com]

If you have time, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. It's really long. http://youtu.be/rEED4yFltCE

[toezontheground.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I did only look at 10 minutes of it so he'd barely got started on the full hour - but he's a good speaker - so if I (or anyone else) did have more time for the topic it would a good video recommendation...

Just to be clear: I don't think banning homeschooling is a good idea, nor do I think 'forced daycare' is a good idea :) Clearly that'd be a nutty position to take. And it sounds like there may be some negatives of the early-age daycare thing.

What I wanted to protest in my previous reply was any suggestion/implication that involvement by 'the State' is an inevitable harbinger of loss of 'freedom' in general, and that where it is a loss of 'freedom' that is always a bad thing. 1st - it depends on what the involvement is: parents in NZ can homeschool, there are govt requirements that they teach to a certain standard, also in NZ there are two alternatives to ordinary schools within the State system itself (distance education, and alternative education...and even semi-private/semi-govt options like Catholic schools); 2nd it depends on what 'freedoms' we are talking about (see the other response); and 3rd, all govts are not created equal when it comes to responding to the wishes of their citizens (though it's true even the best fall short of what they could be); 4th (which relates to 2nd) even where there are certain losses of freedom, sometimes that is a legitimate choice, most obviously if say the exercise of the freedom being restricted would harm others, but even sometimes where a clear choice is being made that competing values have to be weighed, and a choice about those values is made.

One other tangential observation I'd also make about the Scandinavian countries is that I believe that (for better & worse) they have a much stronger collectivist culture of social-norming than Anglo traditions and French tradition: even in the absence of State activity, I would suggest that these societies would be both in some ways more egalitarian & supportive and - in some ways - less tolerant of social difference (check out Scandinavian folk tales that hammer home the message of the perils of leaving poor strangers out in the snow!)