Post Archive by Month

Below you'll find a list of all posts from April, 1999

Much ado about Privatisation.

by Rick Lowe The gauntlet was thrown but then picked up when the “generous to a fault” severance package offered …

Let’s Make a Law!

by Rick Lowe “If the world were a logical place, we would expect to see a correlation between assertiveness and …

Cuba, “The Forbidden Island.”

by Rick Lowe While America leans toward a more sensible policy for Cuba and her people questions continue to arise …

So, I would argue that the services have been I think disappointing is putting it mildly. They've been disastrous. They've been appallingly bad. Much worse than would have existed, even if no welfare state had been created. In fact I would argue especially if no welfare state had been created, because the systems that existed before were very substantial and growing and improving dramatically. But they weren't perfect, and that is in a way is the great trouble with the development of welfare states. You have a system that's not perfect but actually doing quite a lot of good stuff and then someone comes along and says, "ah, we can make this perfection. And so we can make this much better. We will have free for everybody, high class whatever it is." And the result is you have lower standards and it doesn't work out at all. And that's, the desire for perfection can be very dangerous.