Before the younger-son upper-middle-class graduates of Oxford and Cambridge Universities (hitherto employed by the Church of England or the Army) started to enter the Administrative Class of the English Civil Service in numbers from about 1870 onwards and started to institute a top-down London-controlled welfare system throughout the length and breadth of the country, there was, in fact, a genuine sense of community among ordinary people -- with self-help friendly societies, housing associations and so forth.
This is what the Manchester Unity Friendly Society, one of the many associations of (fee-paying) workers in the cities of those days, said to their members: <<<< . . . . those who unworthily seek assistance are not to be neglected if really in distress . . . However, after relieving the actual wants of these unhappy persons, we should endeavour to raise them from the degradation into which they have fallen, and make them richer in their own esteem . . . it is better that ten undeserving persons be assisted than that one worthy be neglected. >>>> Thus the Friendly Societies were also aware there there were free-loaders. They were not afraid to judge: <<<< On extending our charity we must endeavour to distinguish the really deserving . . . [from] those who . . . professionally seek the charity of others . . . [and] forfeit self-respect . . . [and] sacrifice personal dignity. >>>> In much the same way as joining freindly societies, 95% of the workers of those times also sent their children to fee-paying schools, and paid fees to their local doctors' and hospitals' panels. The fees were moderate, and the workers could afford them because, during the course of the Industrial Revolution -- never mind the highly selective views of Dickens, Engels or Marx at that time -- their standard of living was rising four or five-fold. But, since the State takeover of charity, the 5% "unworthy" element (my inference) of the population has now grown to something like 25% (my present-day estimate) making unjustified claims in one way or another. Fact: there is no longer enough money to pay for the continuation of the Welfare State. Claims will always rise above tax income. It's been a failed experiment that has lasted a century and a quarter. This is why even a Labour Government is now privatising State pensions, education, health and much else besides. It is pretending not to, and disguising the process in all sorts of clever verbal formulae, but it is still doing so, nevertheless. Perhaps in due course, when dependency is reduced, self-help is restored, and government is de-centralised more than somewhat, communities will also return. Keith Hudson At 20:17 26/12/01 -0800, you wrote: > Keith Hudson wrote, > It is community that is so sadly lacking in >modern developed society . . . (TW) Later today I was reading a review >article on "La monnaie souveraine" and came across the following gem: >"It is still the relation to the community as a whole which is expressed by > money. But, instead of being displayed in broad daylight, like the bead >curtains [of the Melanesians] . . . this relation is henceforth hidden as >by a veil. The monetary veil is interposed between exchangers and allows >them to act as isolated individuals, outside any traditional social ties. >Nevertheless, it is only by virtue of this very particular relation to the >community as a totality that individuals can behave as though the relation >to the totality did not exist." The review article, "Money as >Sovereignity: The economics of Michel Aglietta" by John Grahl, and a host >of other interesting stuff can be found on the website of the "Thematic >Network: Full Employment for Europe." >http://www.barkhof.uni-bremen.de/kua/memo/europe/tser/Publicat.htm >Tom Walker __________________________________________________________ �Writers used to write because they had something to say; now they write in order to discover if they have something to say.� John D. Barrow _________________________________________________ Keith Hudson, Bath, England; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________
