In the market economy, there is a hierarchy of success. But welfare increases the income and the status of the failures in society. Older forms of welfare were provided privately, usually through religious institutions that were well aware of its potentially corrupting effects. Most important, the rules of social advancement were the same for all. Of course, the old order's free market was not footloose and fancy-free.
Capitalism is as conspicuous for what it requires as for what it allows.
Liberty and responsibility are inseparable. If certain groups have failed to get what they think of as their due, they are able to get themselves designated official victims. This is a culturally corrupting effect in itself, as if failure is always someone else's fault. The welfare state then forces society to treat these groups as if they had earned what they demanded, especially through anti-discrimination law. Yet today, from business to housing to schools to clubs, the free association that Oakeshott regarded as the difference between slavery and liberty is all but gone.