[dannyobrien]

well, except for the fact that, as the article states, it doesn't scale. Or rather, it scales poorly: the quality of care provided by a nation state is going to differ in degree and quality compared to the 1:1 care that humans probably need (and certainly traumatised humans).

I'm not sure this comes as a surprise to anyone except for those who have had no interaction with state-provided social services. I'd also say that a level of care that does not reach to that 1:1 standard is still appreciably better than no care, which may be what one might otherwise receive.

The open question is can we work out better, decentralized ways of providing support that take advantage of the new social technologies that we've developed since the construction of the modern state and its welfare services in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

[worldsayshi]

Care doesn't scale, but a lot of activities around care should be scalable. A caregiver can be helped so they can spend as little time as possible on auxiliary tasks like admin or logistics.

[dannyobrien]

I agree! (Not adding much info here, but I wanted to show that you made me think, and I appreciated your contribution to my thinking and others!)

[zeroCalories]

I don't think there is any contradiction here. Government care can work, but it simply cannot benefit from economies of scale. Gonna need to double the income tax to pay for elders that have been abandoned by their children.

[Uvix]

You mean the elders who failed to take care of themselves, assuming someone else would do it for them.

[em-bee]

which has been the norm for as long as humanity existed

[bccdee]

That's how getting old works, yes. You lose the ability to take care of yourself and begin to depend on others.

Do you really think infirmity is something that can be avoided with the right grindset?

[zeroCalories]

He means that they messed up by investing in their children and providing them a good life instead of putting everything in an index fund. They didn't realize the rug pull they were about to eat.

[tehabe]

Just because the government does something, doesn't mean it has to be centralised. Eventually the care has to be given from one human to another human. On the other hand, it shouldn't matter where you live to receive care or how good the care is.

And the week in which private companies will be able to provide this, is the same week which has two Tuesdays.