An alternative model.

Abstract

In present Western societies, we witness the growing power of the state over the citizens, with an ever-growing flow of freedom-encroaching regulations, legitimated by the wish to keep full employment for all, for all of life. It is suggested here that a major political challenge for the rest of this millenium is to find a limit for the state's material responsibility for, and claims on, its citizens. This can only be done if we divide society into one highly regulated basic needs sector and other free sectors, in which state influence is minimized. This is like dividing trains into smoking and non-smoking compartments.