Röpke proposed abolishing the welfare state except for a bare minimum

Evidence

With typical nostalgia, he argued that, in ‘the old days’, public assistance was intended as a temporary substitute for self-provision, and was therefore ‘meant to safeguard only a certain minimum’. Now, in contrast, public services were becoming the rule, ‘often with the hardly veiled intention of meeting maximal, or indeed, luxury standards’. Posing what was then a ‘heretical question’, Röpke wondered if it would be better if the welfare state were abolished, ‘except for an indispensable minimum’, and the money saved directed to nongovernmental social services. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 214

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reading purpose on austerity/neoliberalism debate, and to Röpke’s Humane Economy as a landmark text against the welfare state. — connects to: Adenauer-era economics aimed to dismantle the welfare state rather than build it — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2516; Neoliberals sought minimal welfare that avoided legitimizing the welfare state — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 206; Neoliberalism funds repressive state functions at welfare’s expense (+4 more)
• SEED: Angles for an essay on why public-assistance nostalgia (‘helping the unfortunate individual’) underwrites modern austerity arguments — the temporary-minimum framing persists in current debates over UBI and means-tested relief.

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal policy requires means-tested minimalism and bans universal provision #corroborates (0.80) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 208
• Neoliberalism replaces the welfare state with a traffic-cop state #corroborates (0.78)
• Ordoliberal economic ideas became socially embedded through a welfare-state compromise #contradicts (0.78) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 366
• Neoliberalism funds repressive state functions at welfare’s expense #complicates (0.75)
• Austerity policies required sacrificing the welfare of most British citizens #exemplifies (0.70) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 860