ABSTRACT
Market society is sometimes described as a tide that lifts all boats. To see why the tide does not touch everyone, people first need to see why it touches anyone. This chapter aims at explaining how individual responsibility contributes to the welfare of people in general. Thus, while the chapter is to some extent about people whom the tide leaves behind, it is more about what produces the tide in the first place. The contrast between internalized and externalized responsibility does not neatly track the contrast between individual and collective responsibility. Collective responsibility can be a form of internalized responsibility. Collective responsibility as such is not a problem, but the urge to externalize responsibility is. Internalizing responsibility, then, also is a cluster of things. Most people agree that people taking responsibility for their welfare is a good thing. It is not merely a good thing, it is a good thing upon which much of what people regard as good depends.
