ABSTRACT
Basic liberalism and its welfare state have almost no plausibility unless one believes in a sufficiently profound human incompetence. Every distinctively liberal assertion invokes an inability; or relative to an able state of some person, a disability; or minimizes an ability: sometimes a sufficient condition of the assertion, always a necessary condition. Danger, injury or death the liberal ascribed to an unregulated auto market was not the only reason it disturbed him. People may feel anxious or trapped by the “consumer culture” but that is not the basic reason the liberal condemns it. These are only symptoms of their weakness as individuals. As economic textbooks are fond of noting, even the apparently simplest act of production involves the participation of a whole society. It is important to note that this observation tells people all nontrivial actions are essentially the property of society as a whole, not of individuals.
