Matthew Feeney on Scrapping the Welfare State and Giving People Free Money

The Swiss are set to
vote on whether their country should introduce a basic
national income of 2,500 Swiss Francs ($2,800) a month for every
adult, regardless of their salary or net worth. Although the
particular proposal in Switzerland may not be ideal, that does not
mean, Matthew Feeney argues, that libertarians should shy away from
proposing something similar. Being morally comfortable with some
degree of government wealth redistribution might be contrary to
anarchism, but it is not contrary to libertarianism. Were
libertarians to argue for replacing the current welfare system with
a basic national income we would be better positioned to highlight
that libertarianism is not the heartless and selfish philosophy it
is commonly portrayed as, and it would allow for a more
humane and effective way to deliver welfare than the
current system on offer.

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