<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>In his libertarian manifesto, <italic>For a New Liberty</italic>, Murray Rothbard [15] points to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an excellent model for what a private welfare program would look like in a free society. In analyzing this same organization, we can see that nearly 50 years later Rothbard’s analysis is truer than ever. Unlike the public welfare programs in the U.S., the LDS church has successfully helped lift countless individuals out of poverty and off the welfare rolls by increasing their level of productivity – a point that Henry Hazlitt [7] made in his book, <italic>The Conquest of Poverty</italic>. Public welfare, on the other hand, has continuously failed to increase the standard of living or even lift those it ostensibly seeks to help out of poverty; on the contrary, it is a system that prevents economic independence. The analysis in the present paper seeks to revive, amplify and bring up to date Rothbard’s observation and provide further insight on key factors that other private organizations can take from the Church’s model. Ultimately, it reveals that the successful journey out of poverty is not a public but rather a private endeavor.</p></abstract>

In his libertarian manifesto, For a New Liberty, Murray Rothbard [15] points to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an excellent model for what a private welfare program would look like in a free society. In analyzing this same organization, we can see that nearly 50 years later Rothbard’s analysis is truer than ever. Unlike the public welfare programs in the U.S., the LDS church has successfully helped lift countless individuals out of poverty and off the welfare rolls by increasing their level of productivity – a point that Henry Hazlitt [7] made in his book, The Conquest of Poverty. Public welfare, on the other hand, has continuously failed to increase the standard of living or even lift those it ostensibly seeks to help out of poverty; on the contrary, it is a system that prevents economic independence. The analysis in the present paper seeks to revive, amplify and bring up to date Rothbard’s observation and provide further insight on key factors that other private organizations can take from the Church’s model. Ultimately, it reveals that the successful journey out of poverty is not a public but rather a private endeavor.

Rethinking Welfare: The LDS Welfare Program vs Public Welfare

Studia Humana

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Rethinking Welfare: The LDS Welfare Program vs Public Welfare"}

In his libertarian manifesto, For a New Liberty, Murray Rothbard [15] points to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an excellent model for what...

Rethinking Welfare: The LDS Welfare Program vs Public Welfare

Published Online: Aug 27, 2020

Page range: 37 - 44

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sh-2020-0011

Keywords
welfare, poverty, libertarian, charity, capitalism

© 2020 David R. Iglesias, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Rethinking Welfare: The LDS Welfare Program vs Public Welfare

Published Online: Aug 27, 2020

Page range: 37 - 44

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sh-2020-0011

Keywordswelfare, poverty, libertarian, charity, capitalism

© 2020 David R. Iglesias, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
welfare, poverty, libertarian, charity, capitalism