Updated with Historical Theory and Facts--How to Create a Terrorist: The Welfare State

Updated with Historical Theory and Facts -- How to Create a Terrorist: The Welfare State

By:

Martin Cowen

            Since I first wrote this essay I have discovered something Ludwig von Mises wrote in Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis:

          "Unemployment in the capitalist countries is due to the fact that the policy both of the governments and of the trade unions aims at maintaining a level of wages which is out of harmony with existing productivity of labour. ... Permanent mass unemployment destroys the moral foundations of the social order. The young people who, having finished their training for work, are forced to remain idle, are the ferment out of which the most radical political movements are formed. In their ranks the soldiers of the coming revolutions are recruited."

          Mises's statements are the exact point of my essay.

          Also, we have learned that "some of those involved in Paris and Brussels attacks were collecting unemployment in Belgium." The Wall Street Journal, August 4, 2016.

           The conclusions of my essay, following, are supported by economic theory almost 100 years old (Socialism was published in 1922) and by the actual facts of the particular case cited.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

           All civilized people are alarmed by acts of terrorism, the most recent being the coordinated bombings on March 22, 2016, at the airport and a subway station in Brussels, Belgium, killing 35 people and injuring more than 300. We ask ourselves, “How could apparently healthy and able-bodied young men and women commit such atrocities against innocent men, women, and children? In this short essay we propose a new and unique answer.

            Let it first be said that these terrorists are despicable criminals who deserve, if they survive their attacks, to be prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent of the law. No sociological babbling, such as herein follows, can excuse their crimes. We are not determinists and we believe in free will. Criminals should be punished no matter what their unfortunate circumstances. That said; let us proceed with the theory.

         Modern progressives are Materialists. According to modern Welfare Statists, if people have their “fair share” of stuff, then they will be content. “A chicken in every pot and car in every garage” is the modern Progressive mantra. Perhaps we should update this 1928 saying as follows: “A cell phone with a good data plan and free healthcare for all.”

            Most Westerners believe the Materialists’ claim, because most Westerners are thoroughgoing Materialists, too. Thus, Westerners are baffled when middle class and wealthy people (like Osama bin Laden) become terrorists. These criminals have a lot of “stuff”!

            Welfare Statists, though, are wrong in their Materialism. The meaning of life is not to be found in a “fair share” of stuff. The meaning of life is to be found in personal pride in one’s own productivity. Each individual is unique. Each individual has her own genetic makeup, her own upbringing, her own special talents and skills, her own wants and desires, her own unique education, and her own unique knowledge of her social environment. From the individual’s unique perspective and circumstances, the individual can choose a number of appropriate actions. The exercise of the individual’s powers within the individual’s sphere of power and the related feeling following success are the meaning of life.

            A great flaw of Welfare Statist theory is the belief that the government can intervene in the individual’s life and choose well for the individual. The interference of the Welfare State in the life of the individual completely undermines the great pleasure we all find in exercising what we will henceforth call our Super Powers.

            In America, people need not have a government job in order to flourish, or even a usual private employment. We have in our lives individual entrepreneurs who clean carpets, clean houses, detail cars, do yard work, teach piano, and provide massages. Each of these people is a sole proprietor. Only our car detailer always has help and his helpers are family members. While these entrepreneurs may have local business licenses, further government regulation is absent. None of them has government mandated professional licensing and none is required. Their only report to the government is through their annual tax return. As entrepreneurs none of them is entitled to a “minimum wage” or even a “fair wage”. Instead, these entrepreneurs negotiate with their customers, usually friends with years of good history, for a price for the job: twenty-five dollars for a piano lesson, thirty-five dollars per hour to clean the house, sixty-five dollars to do the yard, sixty dollars to wash the car at 6 a.m. at the home of the car owner, eighty-five dollars for the massage, and one hundred and forty-five dollars to clean all the carpets in the house. The business relationship between entrepreneur and customer lasts as long as both entrepreneur and customer agree, with no government interference, no severance pay, and no apologies.

            In America, the land of the mostly free, people can be self-employed entrepreneurs, mostly free from government interference.

            Not so in Europe. The major countries of Western Europe are Totalitarian Democracies. Government, though allegedly benevolent, has no limits, since, supposedly, the People are the government. European Socialist Governments can and do regulate everything.

            Belgium is a typical Totalitarian Democracy and a Welfare State. The result is that anybody living legally in Belgium receives welfare and some classes of people are forbidden to work all together. Readers will readily understand that “anybody living legally in Belgium gets welfare”. Welfare is expected by Westerners. On the whole and for the most part, nobody starves in Belgium or goes homeless. (There will be objections to this claim. The population of Brussels is about 1.2 million. One estimate is that there are at least 150 “rough sleepers”, that is people actually sleeping on the street. While these 150 people certainly suffer greatly, the homeless population is .0125 percent of the total. Homelessness is not a problem among potential terrorists, who are our subject.)

            Typical Western readers will not understand that “some classes of people are forbidden to work all together”. A Totalitarian Democrat thinks that it is entirely appropriate for the Government to intervene in private contracts between a customer and a service provider. In the case of regular employment the rules, regulations, and laws governing in Belgium are grossly repressive. Belgium’s unemployment rate is over 20 percent. For young Muslims, the unemployment rate is over 40%. Of course, no government or government bureaucrat will take blame for this travesty, but the blame for unemployment rests solely with the government. We talk in America about a minimum wage and, of course, Belgium has a minimum wage, It is about 1,500 euros per month, or about 1,700 US dollars per month, or about 23,664 dollars per year. But the minimum wage is just the beginning. Ignoring paperwork, which is certainly voluminous, the extras add thousands to the cost of employment. For example, workers are paid for 13.92 months per year. (You figure it out!) Overtime must be paid for working over 39 hours per week. Who in America works less? There are family benefits that must be paid for: unemployment insurance, work accident insurance, health care, old age and disability pensions, and long-term care insurance. The benefits are extended to family members, including the au pair. The employee’s salary is docked by 13.07 percent and the employer chips in 33 percent, plus a 3 percent “crisis surcharge”. A full time employee gets 20 days of annual paid leave and 10 public holidays. There is no maximum for sick days with a doctor’s note! Parental leave is six weeks before delivery, plus fifteen weeks after delivery. Dads get ten days off at 82% salary.

            While Welfare Statists will salivate at these facts, employers simply avoid employing people.

            All of this means that the cost of employment in Belgium is at least $38,000 per employee per year. Any person whose labor is not worth at least $38,000 per year will not be employed. That person will instead receive welfare.

            As for entrepreneurs in Belgium, one imagines that the bureaucratic meddling is equally as repressive as for typical employers. A September 2015 story reports that a Belgian court has banned the ride-sharing UberPOP app. Independent contractor drivers are forbidden from driving willing customers with the iPhone app around Belgium.

            All of this means that young people in Belgium are often unemployed and on welfare, directly or indirectly. Indirect welfare would include living in a household supported by the government check of another.

            Europeans and most Americans are perfectly content with this travesty: increase the cost of labor to the point that 20% or more are unemployable and put the unemployed on welfare. The Democratic Totalitarian Welfare State can do no wrong.

            What we have left is healthy and able-bodied young men and women who are unable to exercise their Super Powers.

            Welfare Statists lack imagination. Welfare Statist cannot envision a free market, a world in which the government allows everyone to make private contracts for services without hundreds of pages of rules and regulations. In the absence of the Welfare State and the freedom corroding Democratic Totalitarianisms of Western Europe, there would be no unemployment in Europe. The healthy and able-bodied young men and women would be busily exercising their Super Powers making a place for themselves, with pride, in our world. Instead, we have healthy and able-bodied young men and women who have no meaning in their lives (living on a welfare check does not provide meaning) and who are easy prey to any terrorist leader ready and willing to make them feel wanted and special and to give them a purpose, on their account, a Glorious Purpose: Jihad!

            So, while navel-gazing about the cause of terrorism against the West, at least give a passing thought to the consequences of your, supposedly well-intentioned, Welfare State, and your rights-violating Democratic Totalitarianism.