But one of the main reasons why Denmark does so well in international happiness surveys is the welfare state, as it reduces uncertainty, worries and stress in the population. You can say that Denmark is the happiest country in the world or you can say that Denmark is the least unhappy country in the world. The welfare state is really good (not perfect, but good) at reducing extreme unhappiness. Universal and free health care, free university education and relatively generous unemployment benefits go a long way towards reducing unhappiness.

~ Meik Wiking

Meik Wiking Happiness Hygge Welfare State

There are those that want freedom from individual responsibility, and then there are those that want individual liberty. Freedom and liberty no longer mean what they used to. A desire for dependence has been made fashionably desirable.

~ A.e. Samaan

A.e. Samaan Freedom Individual Responsibility Libertarian Libertarianism Liberty Welfare State

Compassion without discipline is egregious self-sabotage.

~ Stefan Molyneux

Stefan Molyneux Altruism Anarchy Ancap Attachment Charity Expertise Freedom Generosity Help Helping Others Humanitarian Humanitarianism Inadequacy Individual Individualism Laissez Faire Love Peace Philosophy Private Charity Psychology Rational Rationality Relationships Rights Sacrifice Self Knowledge Statism Voluntaryism Welfare State

Using coercion to drive charity is like using kidnapping to create love.

~ Stefan Molyneux

Stefan Molyneux Anarchy Extortion Freedom Government Libertarian Liberty Philosophy Psychology Rape State Statism Taxes Theft Welfare State

The percentage of people qualifying for federal disability benefits because they are unable to work rose from 0.7 percent of the size of the labor force in 1960 to 5.3% in 2010.

~ Charles Murray

Charles Murray Calling Motivation Unemployment Vocation Welfare State Work

The Labour party on the whole has not been a very effective opposition since the election, partly because it spent months and months electing its new leader. I think the Labour party should, for one thing, stress much more that for most people in the past 13 years, the period was not one of collapse into chaos but actually one where the situation improved, and particularly in areas such as schools, hospitals and a variety of other cultural achievements—so the idea that somehow or other it all needs to be taken down and ground into the dust is not valid. I think we need to defend what most people think basically needs defending and that is the provision of some form of welfare from the cradle to the grave.

~ Eric Hobsbawm

Eric Hobsbawm 1990S 2000S 2010 2010S 2011 Culture Ed Miliband Hospitals Labour Party Uk Leftism Schools Uk General Election 2010 Welfare Welfare State

If any man's money can be taken by a so-called government, without his own personal consent, all his other rights are taken with it; for with his money the government can, and will, hire soldiers to stand over him, compel him to submit to its arbitrary will, and kill him if he resists.

~ Lysander Spooner

Lysander Spooner Aggression Anarcho Capitalism Anarchy Ancap Austrian School Of Economics Coercion Collectivism Communism Force Free Market Freedom Gang Government Initiation Of Force Laissez Faire Libertarian Liberty Mafia Non Aggression Principle Socialism Statism Theft Violence Voluntaryism Welfare State

We've got this weird dysgenic situation where we're basically just paying idiots to breed and taxing intelligent people to stay away from each other with anything remotely resembling fertility.

~ Stefan Molyneux

Stefan Molyneux Anarchy Benefits Evolution Freedom Government Idiocracy Libertarian Liberty Offspring Population Species Statism Taxation Taxes Theft Voluntaryism Welfare Welfare State

The sick in soul insist that it is humanity that is sick, and they are the surgeons to operate on it. They want to turn the world into a sickroom. And once they get humanity strapped to the operating table, they operate on it with an ax.

~ Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer Anarchy Beaurocracy Freedom Government Libertarian Liberty Politics Socialism Statism Statists Voluntaryism Welfare State

You can either have individual liberty, or dependence on the government. One is designed to undo the other.

~ A.e. Samaan

A.e. Samaan Civil Rights Individual Liberty Libertarian Libertarianism Liberty Progressive Progressivism Socialism Totalitarian Totalitarianism Welfare Welfare State

It's philanthropy, but it's good politics, too. Mighty good politics. The poor are some of the most grateful people in the world. George Washington Plunkett.

~ H.w. Brands

H.w. Brands Learned Helplessness Loyalty Materialism Welfare State

But now I understand something more fully that I once only understood abstractly. I see how utterly ridiculous it is to think that the state can be the right means to help those who are poor or living at the margins of society. The state is their enemy, as it is for everyone else.

~ Jeffrey Tucker

Jeffrey Tucker Anarchy Corruption Despotism Freedom Statism Welfare State

This historic general election, which showed that the British are well able to distinguish between patriotism and Toryism, brought Clement Attlee to the prime ministership. In the succeeding five years, Labor inaugurated the National Health Service, the first and boldest experiment in socialized medicine. It took into public ownership all the vital (and bankrupted) utilities of the coal, gas, electricity and railway industries. It even nibbled at the fiefdoms and baronies of private steel, air transport and trucking. It negotiated the long overdue independence of India. It did all this, in a country bled white by the World War and subject to all manner of unpopular rationing and controls, without losing a single midterm by-election (a standard not equaled by any government of any party since). And it was returned to office at the end of a crowded term.

~ Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens Britain British People Clement Attlee Elections India Indian Independence Act 1947 Indian Independence Movement Labour Party Uk National Health Service Patriotism Prime Minister Of The Uk Rationing In The United Kingdom Socialised Medicine Toyrism Uk General Election 1945 United Kingdom Welfare State Winston Churchill World War Ii