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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 Ref
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.
| 7226 | Benefits performed by individuals, not by government, help also to educate them [Mill] |
| 23417 | If the state is neutral, there won't be sufficient community to support a welfare state [Taylor,C, by Kymlicka] |
| 23378 | The welfare state helps to integrate the working classes into a national culture [Kymlicka] |
| 23083 | Liberal welfare focuses on need rather than desert [Kekes] |
| 22832 | Welfare is needed if citizens are to accept the obligations of a liberal state [Charvet] |