From: eyc@acpub.duke.edu (EMIL CHUCK)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush,talk.politics.misc,alt.rush-limbaugh,alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
Subject: Editorial: Taking over what families used to do
Summary: Walter Williams' editorial: Washington Times
Date: 17 Aug 92 19:24:02 GMT
Followup-To: alt.politics.bush
Organization: Duke University; Durham, N.C.

[Walter Williams is an economics professor at George Mason University.
His column is nationally syndicated. This copy is taken from the
Washington _Times_.]

TAKING OVER WHAT FAMILIES USED TO DO

If you've wondered about family decline and couldn't quite put your
fingers on the causal factors, Allan Carlson of Auburn University's
Ludwig von Mises Institute has. In the paper, "What Has Government Done
to Our Families?" Mr. Carlson argues there has been transfer of the
dependency function from families to government employees.
	The dependency function pertains to questions of who will care
for the weak, the young, the old, the sick and the handicapped. Mr.
Carlson says, "The rise of the welfare state can be written as the
steady transfer of the dependency function from the family to the state;
from persons tied by blood, marriage or adoption to persons tied to
public employees." The state becomes the new locus of loyalty. Mr.
Carlson adds that "client society" is a more fitting description, as
opposed to welfare state, of today's America where many citizens are
clients of a large group of government employees who take care of them
throughout their lives. What's worse are the constant pressures for us
to transfer even more dependency functions to the government.
	This is not the first generation where there have been problems
associated witth the aged, the sick, or the young. What did we do before
the relatively recent rise of the client state? One thing for sure is
our history is not one of people dying on the streets because of unmet
critical needs.Families took care of those who were dependent; those
were the days when older people died in the homes of their children
rather than a green room in a government-owned or subsidized hospital or
hospice. Where families could not meet dependency needs, churches,
fraternities, sororities, charitable organizations and local communities
stepped in to fill the gap by building foster homes, old-age homes and
homes for widowed women and orphaned children.
	Throughout history, people acting privately have dealt
successfully with problems we now consider to be the job of government.
Families, churches and communities were the "safety net." We revitalize
these institutions by eliminating various laws, regulations and
subsidies that have served to undermine them. We should not place our
trust in some fat, remote bureaucrat whose only concern is his job and
power.
	Mr. Carlson says we ought to start an anti-bureaucratic campaign
to abolish state-mandated and state-controlled education, leaving the
training and rearing of children up to parents; abolish various child
labor laws and permit parents to judge what's in the best interest of
their children; dismantle the Social Security system, leaving protection
or security in old age up to individuals and the families. To Mr.
Carlson's incomplete list, I'd prohibit the distribution of condoms,
birth control devices and performance of abortion to minors without
parental knowledge and consent.
	Some people might say, "In today's complex, modern societies,
those actions could wreak havoc!" But Mr. Carlson suggests that we look
at the Amish, who've done a fair job of keeping government out of their
lives. The Amish have their own schools, make heavy use of child labor,
avoid Social Security and don't accept farm welfare. Amish families are
more stable, their children are better educated, old or sick Amish
people aren't dying on the streets, their savings rate is very high, and
while other farmers have fallen on hard times, Amish farms prosper and
expand. Nobody's saying we should become an Amish nation. We just need
to stop bureaucrats from messing with our families.

-- 
Emil Thomas Chuck		DUKE BLUE DEVILS: 1992 ACC CHAMPIONS!
Biomedical Engineer 1993	1992 EAST REGIONAL CHAMPIONS!!
Duke University, Durham, NC	AND 1992 NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!
August 31, 1992 - May 16, 1993	Duke football? What's that?
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