Saturday, February 28, 2004

Diversity and The Welfare State

The Guardian publishes a long essay by David Goodhart titled "Discomfort of Strangers." It’s a two parter, and long, but makes for interesting early morning reading.

Part I.  Part II. A couple of quotes to draw you in.

"The diversity, individualism and mobility that characterise developed economies - especially in the era of globalisation - mean that more of our lives is spent among strangers. Ever since the invention of agriculture 10,000 years ago, humans have been used to dealing with people from beyond their own extended kin groups. The difference now in a developed country such as Britain is that we not only live among stranger citizens but we must share with them. We share public services and parts of our income in the welfare state, we share public spaces in towns and cities where we are squashed together on buses, trains and tubes, and we share in a democratic conversation - filtered by the media - about the collective choices we wish to make. All such acts of sharing are more smoothly and generously negotiated if we can take for granted a limited set of common values and assumptions. But as Britain becomes more diverse that common culture is being eroded."

and

"Negotiating the tension between solidarity and diversity is at the heart of politics. But both left and right have, for different reasons, downplayed the issue. The left is reluctant to acknowledge a conflict between values it cherishes; it is ready to stress the erosion of community from “bad” forms of diversity, such as market individualism, but not from “good” forms of diversity, such as sexual freedom and immigration. And the right, in Britain at least, has sidestepped the conflict, partly because it is less interested in solidarity than the left, but also because it is still trying to prove that it is comfortable with diversity."

Via J. Bowen at No Watermelons Allowed who linked to this via Dustbury.com.

Update: And on a related note, “The Sinking Lifeboat Uncontrolled Immigration & the U.S. Health Care System." Hattip to Greg Ransom at PrestoPundit for the link.

Reminder, it isn’t the immigration, it’s the handouts.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/28 at 05:17 AM
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