Keith, One of things I noticed in my trips to England was the dependence of ordinary people on the 101 service agencies. Now, I was on holiday, staying with relatives, happily walking all over the place, certainly not doing a social survey, or anything.
Yet, it seemed to me that people naturally turned to government agencies to pursue their needs. I almost never ask my way of a government agency. I do it myself or go to a private source. This is purely a subjective observation - noticed on the fly. I wish now I had pursued it to find real information. And thinking about it, I suppose there are areas of our communities which are tied to government agencies. Any comment, Keith? Harry _______________________________________ Keith wrote: >The latest news this morning is that winds have picked up and the 100 fires >around Sydney will be accelerating. Thousands of people have now been >evacuated. > >Also, a 22-year old man, an 18 year-old and three 15 year-old teenagers >have already been arrested on suspicion of starting some of the fires. The >authorities want to know why they started them. > >It is my view -- and I'll spell this out now -- that centralised welfare >states take away responsibility from communities and individuals and >produces a too high degree of dependency among the general population. An >increasing number of people assume that the state will take care of >everything for them. A report announced yesterday is another exmple of this >-- that there have been 65,000 cases of physical assaults in the reception >areas of hospitals. Some of them are caused by crazed drug addicts and >drunks, but a great number are by ordinary people in need (or imagining >themselves to be in need) of emergency treatment -- but having to wait for >hours (sometimes more than a day). > >The doctors and nurses in the hospitals are not to be blamed. It is the >overall set-up -- the expectation that the nation-state can do everything >for you, the large Kafka-like managerial organisations, a great deal of >which never actually come into contact with the customer. > >So I think there's a direct connection between overlarge, over-centralised, >overpowerful welfare states, and an increasing lack of responsibility by an >increasing proportion of the population. > >Keith Hudson ****************************** Harry Pollard Henry George School of LA Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 Tel: (818) 352-4141 Fax: (818) 353-2242 *******************************
