Marco2014 Posted June 14, 2014 Posted June 14, 2014 Hey guys! I currently work with mentally disabled individuals for a private company in the United Kingdom. I would like to know what are your opinions or ideas on how mentally disabled individuals could be taken care of in an Anarchist Society? I do understand that we can never truly predict how people would go about in an Anarchist society, however I would still be very grateful if you could share some of your opinions and thoughts with me! On a personal level I feel that working with mentally disabled individuals has dramatically increased my ability to empathise with a broad range of individuals. However a part of me feels that even the best intentioned things do not warrant theft via redistribution of resources. Let me also give you a little perspective. The NHS says that there is an approximate total of 350,000 individuals in the UK that have severe learning disabilities. In my sector we do work with severe learning disability individuals and the average sum that the government is paying for each individual in our residence is £5000 per calendar month. That is £60,000 per year. In Canadian dollar that would be $110,502 per year per individual. But in order to be more moderate and in order to account for fluctuations in government grants lets assume there are only 300,000 individuals with SLD. That would still account for £18,000,000,000 or $33,150,722,724 Canadian dollars. The really sad part is that we've had personal experiences where families chose to keep a baby which was diagnosed with SLD due to a desire of receiving government funding. Later on when they realised that they wouldn't be getting as much as expected, they dropped these individuals to companies such as the one I work for. I hope that helped give you a rough idea of where the situation currently stands in the United Kingdom. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!
12StringSamurai Posted June 19, 2014 Posted June 19, 2014 People with special needs have often been neglected and trampled on. Currently, many States have inserted themselves into the situation. As with all Statist intervention, it's using force to take people's resources and then give them corrupt and bloated services. It's easy to imagine a Statist fronting this argument as a reason why people can't be free. "Without the angelic Government, the mentally handicapped will starve." But, the Statist's desire to see humane treatment of the mentally handicapped is simply a reflection of society's general improvement in empathy for Special Needs people. States weren't violently seizing people's wealth to build care facilities for the mentally handicapped out of some deep seated, intrinsic altruism in the days of colonialism, for example. Like the Welfare State, it's a construct that has evolved as a vote buying scheme over time. Now that people in general are more empathetic toward the mentally handicapped, if the State ceased to be involved in it, voluntary charitable organizations would form, and leaner, more efficient private industries would appear to cater to those needs.
Recommended Posts