Why I don't have an ethical problem with Welfare

A tepid defense of the Welfare Pill

source: @ScottMGreer on X

Scott Greer has a recent YouTube podcast Don’t Take the Welfare Pill, denouncing the embrace of welfarism on the dissident right. Greer is a reactionary and an elitist who promotes White identity based on preppy WASPs and fraternities. While a degree of elitism is needed, the reality is that country club WASPs and frats generally have fairly normie political views. However, Greer is not necessarily a full-on economic libertarian.

Scott Greer argues that a segment of White Nationalists want Whites to become the new Blacks. This is not entirely wrong, as dissident right White guys feel totally alienated from America, much like Blacks did in the past. Dissident right accounts will promote going on welfare as reparations for White males being systematically discriminated against. There is also this meme of just find a woman from a trailer park and churn out lots of kids on welfare to raise the White birth rate.

This mentality is in stark contrast with bougie White racism that seeks to avoid the underclass, hence the meme “wignats.” However, the dissident right is divided between calls to milk the anti-White system and protesting that going on welfare is only for non-Whites. Not to mention that many poorer Whites refuse welfare out of pride, even if they are perhaps naïve about the system.

There is a termite philosophy that encourages people to undermine a system and society that is unjust. Conservatives are cucks for wanting to force everyone to contribute to a society that is fundamentally at odds with their values. While low-status Whites have no reason to be loyal to the system, the broader issue is that American society is low trust and atomized, and just an economic zone that does not justify loyalty. Not to mention that the system is corrupt, rigged in favor of the ultra-wealthy, with welfare for the rich and corporations far more obscene than welfare for the poor.

The dissident right disproportionately appeals to low-status Whites, who are more to the left on economics than conservatives. However, a lot of these takes are from alienated middle class nerds, with boring office jobs, rather than White lumpen proles living in trailer parks. There is also a proletarianization of the normie right, as Greer points out. For instance, conservatives often say don't go to college and fetishize being a working class schlub. Regardless, it is good to see the Right move away from Reaganism/Paul Ryanism.

source: @bizlet7

People justifiably view work as a scam, and if you have zero prospects of making it to the upper middle class, why bother? Thus many make a calculated decision to be on welfare rather than be part of the working poor. Scott Greer is right that welfare is not some path to power, nor is it starving the beast. Most people on welfare have a low quality of life. It comes down to accepting a managed decline rather than a truly revolutionary act.

While the ideal is a no strings attached UBI, welfare forces people to surrender their autonomy to the State, as well as serves as a safety valve to keep the proles from rebelling. For instance, welfare sort of neutered Blacks after the racial uprisings of the ‘60s and ‘70s. However, welfare can be some cushion from cancel culture, as I’ve never heard of anyone losing welfare benefits for their views. In contrast, Charlottesville protesters lost their low-status retail jobs after getting doxed. The big issue with welfare is not political cancelation but rather that people lose their benefits for working and, thus are kept in a state of perpetual poverty. This is another reason why welfare should be replaced by UBI.

The idea that welfare recipients are moochers off the middle class is nonsense. This is because the State prints money and issues treasury bonds as debt to cover the budget. The purpose of taxation is not actually to fund government programs, but rather to instill compliance to and maintain the legitimacy of the system. If someone is on welfare they are not stealing from taxpayers, though they are contributing somewhat to inflation and debt, which makes it much less personal.

There is this trope from the Right that America can’t have a Western European-style welfare state because of how diverse we our. They have it totally backward, as a generous safety net and meeting people’s basic material needs is the only way you can maintain a multi-ethnic society without everyone turning on each other. We can pull this off as long as we hold on to our World Reserve Currency status, though AI might generate enough wealth in the future to maintain a generous welfare state.

Boomer Conservatives still act like it is the 80s with Welfare Queens living large, as the scope of welfare has been greatly limited since Bill Clinton’s neoliberal austerity reforms. While welfare is slightly dysgenic, the dysgenic impact is exaggerated by the Right. The fertility rate for the lumpen proletariat is slightly above replacement level, but nothing like the rightwing stereotype that the typical woman of color on welfare has 10 kids each.

I reject the argument that welfare is bad for the entrepreneurial spirit, as those ambitious enough to become successful generally are not going to go on welfare in the first place. Though there are obviously some outliers of rags to riches stories. The idea that Americans are lazy is nonsense as productivity has gone way up. The economy can get by with not everyone working and a segment of hyper-ambitious strivers can lift up the dead weight.

The problem is that the job market does not perfectly match society’s genetic diversity. For instance, the bottom 10-20% in IQ are mostly unemployable. Not to mention super socially awkward or autistic people, unless they can make it in STEM, are generally screwed. And even then, STEM fields are now flooded with H1bs. We just don't have a system that can match people up with jobs that they are most compatible with.

Because America makes it so miserable to be in the bottom half, there are just as many lower-class people who are striving to move up, as there are who have totally given up on life. I detest the hyper moralism around welfare and wish the issue could be discussed in more practical terms, as people respond to incentive structures.