Volume 6 of The Collected Works of Arthur Seldon examines the failure of state-supported welfare programs to benefit the people most in need of help. The eight articles and one book in this volume encompass almost forty years of criticism of the welfare state. 

Seldon argues that the welfare state cannot, in the long run, solve the problem of poverty. It is driven by misguided egalitarian views which make it universalist, providing benefits for the middle classes as well as the poor. Because it finances welfare through taxation, it damages incentives to work. Moreover it diminishes motivations to save and to provide for one’s family as the state appears to take over such responsibilities. 

Once “free” welfare services are begun they are very difficult to stop. But, says Seldon, permanent state welfare is unnecessary: as people’s incomes rise, most are capable of providing for themselves and their families. In the end, people will revolt against inferior state services and the state will have to retreat. 


The entire series includes:

Volume 1: The Virtues of Capitalism (September 2004) 
Volume 2: The State Is Rolling Back (November 2004) 
Volume 3: Everyman's Dictionary of Economics (January 2005) 
Volume 4: Introducing Market Forces into "Public" Services (February 2005) 
Volume 5: Government Failure and Over-Government (May 2005) 
Volume 6: The Welfare State: Pensions, Health, and Education (October 2005) 
Volume 7: The IEA, the LSE, and the Influence of Ideas (December 2005) 



Reviews
Sets out the late Thatcherite guru’s critiques of state-provided social security, directed against the universalist approach of public programmes in which the neediest are supposedly provided with too little and the rest allegedly get more than they need. Purports to explain how state-run benefits, such as national pensions and healthcare, in the author’s view suppress innovation, diminish personal choice, undermine personal responsibility and end by providing what Seldon saw as mediocre services.

International Social Security Review
April 2006 


Table of Contents
Introduction by Colin Robinson ix

THE RELUCTANT CRUTCH 3

PENSIONS FOR PROSPERITY 9

THE FUTURE OF THE WELFARE STATE 51

AFTER THE NHS 67

THE GREAT PENSIONS “SWINDLE” 105
Acknowledgements 109
Open letter to Mr. Richard Crossman 111
I. Why This Book? 115
II. What Is at Stake 120
III. “Swindle”? 126
IV. The Strain on Political Institutions 129
V. How It All Began 135
VI. Crossman’s National Superannuation 145
VII. Eight Principles—Eight Fallacies 155
VIII. Humanity for the Aged 170
IX. Pensions in Industry 174
X. Saving for Democracy 180
XI. The Contract of the Generations 186
XII. National Insurance and the Civil Servants 191
XIII. Overseas Exemplars—or Warnings? 197
XIV. What Now? 209
Envoi 214
Appendixes 217