Many people think life without the welfare state would be chaos. In their minds, nobody would help support the less fortunate, and there would be riots in the streets. Little do they know that people found innovative ways of supporting each other before the welfare state existed. One of the most important of these ways was the mutual-aid society.
Mutual aid, also known as fraternalism, refers to social organizations that gathered dues and paid benefits to members facing hardship. According to David Beito in From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State, there was a "great stigma" attached to accepting government aid or private charity during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.[1] Mutual aid, on the other hand, did not carry the same stigma. It was based on reciprocity: today's mutual-aid recipient could be tomorrow's donor, and vice versa.
It was kind of like insurance. In fact, when I was a child my mother carried our life insurance through a company called Woodmen of the World, which billed itself as a "fraternal benefit society".
The Army Mutual Aid Association, now the Army and Air Force Mutual Aid Association, is an insurance company, but its name tells you how it started. The history goes a little deeper. From their web site:
The Army Mutual Aid Association was established in 1879 after the Battle of Little Big Horn, or "Custer's Last Stand." During frontier times when an officer died, the remaining soldiers would literally "pass the hat" to raise money for the surviving family. This system collapsed, however, with the Battle of Little Big Horn. There were too few survivors to pass the hat, thus leaving the deceased soldiers' families in need. To remedy this situation, Army officers established the Army Mutual Aid Association.Voluntary associations. Conservatives don't want toss grandma off the cliff or have the sick dying in the streets, we just feel there are more compassionate ways of helping people help themselves. We also believe in charity.
4 comments:
In my church, we have a benevolence offering once every three months. This money goes to those who are having trouble. I go to a large church, and that money collected adds up to quite a lot of cash.
It's my understanding, and others can concur, that just about every church does this. It's part of being a Christian - you help those who are needy and in tough spots. I believe in my heart that if we got rid of welfare completely, that the downtrodden would not be forgotten.
There are several organizations that have a similar approach today, specifically regarding mutual aide for health care: Samaritan's Ministries
We also tend to give more to charitable causes than Liberals, Dems and Progressives, from the research I've seen.
My husband and I had just this sort of conversation the other day. We are trying to help a friend who recently lost his job, and between us and his other friends and family, and of course his own resourcefulness ... he is making it, although it is not easy! One aspect of the assistance of friends and family that goes unnoticed is this: if you want a network of people you can rely on, you need to create and maintain good relationships with other people. It actually improves social bonds. People will help someone who has fallen on hard times ... but if that person behaves horribly or is not making an effort to improve his situation, support will dry up. Government delivered welfare doesn't strengthen the bonds between people, and in fact has the opposite effect.
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