I am happily counting the days till the Supreme Court of Canada revokes the charitable status of churches (because of the gay marriage law) and all charity responsibility falls on government.

We'll see who calls themselves libertarian, then.

There are now more people receiving disability support pensions than unemployment benefits.

This is mainly due to welfare reform in the 90s. Today the easiest way to get free money is to claim a disability. Ow, my back!

Peter,

Does not 20th century history indict the right as well as the left?

Randall,

No, we will see who gives freely of themselves, still volunteers their time and energy, and cares [truly] for others when there is no monetary gain to be had.

"There are now more people receiving disability support pensions than unemployment benefits."

A solid percentage of people where I live receive some sort of SS disability paymnents. It is not difficult to find a doctor willing to take you through the process of finding and treating a mental disorder. Welfare at least calls it like it is, "I am lazy", SS disability is a much deeper deception. Fully 24 % of SS payments go to the "disabled" or dependents in the system. I watch them in a long line at SS office waiting for it to open each morning. Not an old person in sight. Republicans are wimping out on this issue as not a word of the real problem of SS system becoming the new welfare system is mentioned.

I trust it makes me neither urbane nor libertarian to suspect that the two following statements from the article might not be unconnected:

Canberra's welfare bill is $88 billion this year.

Marriage breakdowns, drug taking, gambling, suicides, child abuse, mental health problems and crime rates have soared.

I think that a couple of things could (should) make a comeback that were present in "olden" times. Single men & women often lived in boarding houses, now everyone is expected to live in their own house or apartment. For the economically vulnerable, there is a lack of sharable housing they can tap into. We are building bigger and bigger houses to hold less and less people.

Government equalization programs, especially Title 9 have been used as an excuse to destroy boy's sports programs. We've been abandoning the good to try to acheive the perfect.

Robert,

We try hard (the Union Against All Leftism) where I live to shut these boarding houses down but unfortunately people make substantial money from boarding and courting (enabling) the bums.

Usually they are affiliated with a psuedo church and ACORN is right there for support. I can't stand them, we need a good depression to level set people.

Peter;

Well, no, those of us of a libertarian bent don't believe that "economic prosperity is the cure for all ills". We think that most of those ills are fundamentally incurable and economic prosperity is the best we can do to ameloriate them. It's a candard that libertarians oppose collective / social actions. We oppose collective actions enforced at the point of a gun. It's the same as the difference between sex and rape. It's not the act itself that's wrong, but the means by which it is achieved. In fact, I think we'd see a lot more collective action if the government would stop getting in the way and enabling social pathologies.

We never should have taught men it's OK to cry.

Peter Burnet:

If you believe that economic prosperity is the prize for correctly assigning moral and social responsibilities within a culture, then why do you object to making the same analysis of Muslim Arab cultures ?

Surely their complete and utter lack of non-oil prosperity is a clew that something may be amiss ?

Remember, the oil wealth will not last more than another three generations, at best, and more probably not two.
What then ?

I don't object at all. The place has been a political and economic mess since WW11. What I object to is your sweeping argument that it all stems inherently from Islam and that there is nothing admirable or redeemable or anything to build on unless they chuck the whole package. That is so obviously wrong (not to mention self-defeating), but not surprising as you seem blind to the fact that there are any problems at all in the West, at least none that couldn't be solved by a quick technological fix.

I don't object at all. The place has been a political and economic mess since WW11. What I object to is your sweeping argument that it all stems inherently from Islam and that there is nothing admirable or redeemable or anything to build on unless they chuck the whole package. That is so obviously wrong (not to mention self-defeating), but not surprising as you seem blind to the fact that there are any problems at all in the West, at least none that couldn't be solved by a quick technological fix.