Zombieland

Ours is a time of social upheaval and financial worry. There have been many theories offered as to the causes of these problems but one elephant in the room is never discussed: The Welfare State.

The acceptance by the working population for the support of the nonworking, the young for the old and the healthy for the ill is a remarkable development and may define the modern world more accurately than war or disillusion. It is simply an overwhelmingly modern characteristic strangely devoid of religious mandate. It is a responsibility that crosses race, age, values, gender and offers the recipients much and the givers little. And it is running on fumes.

Two problems loom. First, with the traditional surplus of economic growth less available will such charity be practical and affordable? And second, the Camp of the Saints question, will this charity cross national borders? Debt, declining living standards and deficits raise the first question, globalization the second.

The obvious problems in Europe where the productive north is being asked to support the debt of the retired south, where the have-littles riot in the London streets, where Muslim neighborhoods have become totally isolated except for monthly checks from strangers--these are all burdens which have financial limits. The average worker can support only so many, the average community can tolerate only so much damage, the average culture can absorb only so much disruption.

Yet, despite these obvious problems, somehow they are never discussed. These social welfare problems are simply not being solved and those that are being disguised will not be for much longer.

The bureaucrats are bravely showing up every day, tweaking and transfusing the monster. But the monster is quite dead. We in a are post welfare state; we just don't seem to know it.