Single Idea 7226

[catalogued under 25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 3. Welfare provision]

Full Idea

It is often desirable that beneficial things should be done by individuals, rather than by the government, as a means to their own mental education.

Gist of Idea

Benefits performed by individuals, not by government, help also to educate them

Source

John Stuart Mill (On Liberty [1857], Ch.5)

Book Reference

Mill,John Stuart: 'Utilitarianism (including On Liberty etc)', ed/tr. Warnock,Mary [Fontana 1962], p.243


A Reaction

This raises the important danger, which even those on the political left must acknowledge, of the 'nanny state'. It offers a nicely paternalistic, and even patronising reason for giving people freedom, just as a parent might to a child.