NationStates Jolt Archive

I don't think that social security should be abolished. However, I think the retirement portion should be privatized.

I don't think that medicare and medicaid should be abolished. However, I think that they should become cash assistance for private high deductible health savings account.

I don't think welfare should be abolished. However, I think that welfare should more or less be turned over to charity with block grants etc.

I also support abolishing the income tax to eliminate taxation on investing, having your company get healthcare for you instead of doing it yourself, and saving. I support having a rebated sales tax (FairTax), which would give a reimbursement on what taxes would be collected on poverty line spending for everyone. I think this would be more effective to helping the poor than the welfare system.

Can I still be a minarchist/libertarian and not want the utter abolishment of all forms of welfare?

Can I still be a minarchist/libertarian and not want the utter abolishment of all forms of welfare?
You can be. I am a minarchist, and I believe that the government should get as much as it can out of the private market by encouraging it to flourish. Then, what the private market cannot provide for, it should offer as the last-solution provider. This is compatible with minarchism.

I don't think that social security should be abolished. However, I think the retirement portion should be privatized.

I don't think that medicare and medicaid should be abolished. However, I think that they should become cash assistance for private high deductible health savings account.

I don't think welfare should be abolished. However, I think that welfare should more or less be turned over to charity with block grants etc.

I also support abolishing the income tax to eliminate taxation on investing, having your company get healthcare for you instead of doing it yourself, and saving.

Can I still be a minarchist/libertarian and not want the utter abolishment of all forms of welfare?

no.

Can I still be a minarchist/libertarian and not want the utter abolishment of all forms of welfare?
Sure. As with all politics, it's not an on/off switch, it's a scale. And you can sit anywhere along that scale.

And a minarchist believes that the government should be as small as possible. So if you can make a good argument that a government should encourage certain things to happen, and you can make it clear that without government things would be worse, then you can be a minarchist yet believe that certain things should be done by the government.

Sure. As with all politics, it's not an on/off switch, it's a scale. And you can sit anywhere along that scale.

And a minarchist believes that the government should be as small as possible. So if you can make a good argument that a government should encourage certain things to happen, and you can make it clear that without government things would be worse, then you can be a minarchist yet believe that certain things should be done by the government.
Exactement. It's a belief that the government should go from providing most solutions to only providing those which the free market forces themselves cannot. So it's open to interpretation, and as you say, not an "on/off switch".