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Coll-iberalism Welfare

There are two general types of ideologies depicted in the two sources provided. These

ideologies are collectivist ideas for Source I and individualist ideas for Source II. In Source I, the ideas that

make the source portray collectivist views come from Mary Anulik Kutsiq’s (author of the source)

explanation of the Inuit community, which involved the people looking out for the collective interest by

sharing necessities of everyday life with one another. She then goes on to explain that people in general

today are too much involved with a classical sense of liberalism, which is to say that we as individual

people hold self-interest and competition higher than the collective interest and collective

responsibility. In Source II, the ideas that make the source portray individualist views come from the

way the man talks to the bear and the man explains that in his day bears worked for their honey, instead

of begging for it on the street. The man’s statement is an example of classical liberalism because the

idea behind it was to work and compete against one another to earn your keep, rather than one’s

earnings being handed to them by the government.

The way the two sources tie together is the idea of welfare capitalism. The first source explains

how people looked out for the collective interest, which is essentially the same idea as welfare

capitalism in the sense that everyone is looking out for people who can’t necessarily look out for

themselves. The reason why the second source ties in with welfare capitalism is that the idea behind

welfare is the government doesn’t want people (in this case, the bear) on the street begging, so they

provide a source of income until they can get back on their feet. Another way the two sources tie

together is their sense of liberalism. Source I is an example of contemporary liberalism (welfare state

being the idea), where everyone has a safety net to fall into when they cannot provide for themselves.

Kendra Horvath October 20, 2009 Humanities 30

Source II is an example of classical liberalism (self interest and competition being the idea), where it is

tough luck if you cannot provide for yourself.

In conclusion, the two sources are examples of welfare capitalism, whereas Source I is a product

of it and Source II is the reason why it was developed. This example of liberalism does tie in also with

some collectivist views where the people are looking out for the common good of everyone.