I think it might be useful to think realistically about the alternatives to a social safety net, if there are any.
The basic conservative argument stresses personal responsibility and accountability. At the same time, the job market ought to be as unregulated as possible, the argument seems to go, allowing business to prosper. Today, some in the Republican Party also argue against any minimum wage at all, taking the free market concept to its logical extreme, which is where dogmas tend to be taken by the fervent and the righteously enraptured. Yet without going that far, let's see how an average Jane or Joe might fare under existing conditions.
The federal minimum wage is set at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._minimum_wages" in the last decade. That's $13,050 per year, but let's assume a little overtime and odd-jobbing raises income to $18,000, net of FICA taxes and with no federal or state tax due. That's $1,500 of disposable income per month (part of which will be spent on sales tax).
Now, not everyone is an entrepreneur, nor can everyone become the boss, so there will be a non-negligible amount of people earning more or less this amount for a majority of their working lives.
Being responsible individuals, they will need to pay rent, eat, buy and replace clothing, buy and replace furniture, including white goods (refrigerator at minimum), as well as save for the down payment on a house, in order not to become indigent when retiring. Add free market health care, home insurance, (possibly car payments, car insurance, and gasoline where there is no public transport), saving for retirement, and no child care costs since they are single. No smoking, no drinking, no going to the movies. Just the simple joys of working, eating, sleeping, and schlepping to and from work.
Now, take a city like Washington, DC, where janitors and other minimum wage earners work. Assuming the individual lives 10 miles outside of town to save on rent, say in
http://rentbits.com/rb/t/rental-rates/apartments/germantown-maryland", he or she will face an average rent of $1,150 per month for a single bedroom apartment. That's $350 left over for all other expenses.
I don't think it takes much to see that beyond eating (poorly, oops, leading to junk food obesity and undue burden on the health care system, those rats!) and taking public transportation (oops, a little "socialism" has already been required to make this work), there is little or
no money left over, perhaps enough for aspirin. Of course, one could share an overcrowded apartment and save some there, as well as sleep on the floor and save on bed costs, but I think you see where the numbers lead us.
So, what shall we do? Either we drastically raise the minimum wage (socialism rears its ugly head once again), which would in turn lead to price hikes across the board in many businesses, and make some types of business inviable. Or we simply say, when you are sick, die, when you reach retirement or are unable to work, starve, and if you ever need any financial help due to an unexpected event, such as a tornado destroying your home, go join Dorothy in Oz.
Just... die. Don't make any noise when doing it, and you damn better have insurance that covers the cost of your burial or cremation. By the way, suicide is a sin! So are abortions! And no stealing, bums, nor window washing at stop lights, nor public begging, slouch! You really should have been a stockbroker, loser! We at least deserve
our bailouts.
Perhaps technology can replace them all with robots, and we can let them all die off after we run them out of town? Target practice, anyone? Running head starts are good sport, after all, no? Fertilizer? ...
Of course, we
could have a bit of a social safety net, and let the many nice people who scrub our floors, serve us coffee, and attend to our whims at the mall not die in misery, allow them to retire with some small amount to cover their expenses, subsidize their food costs as a preventive health measure, and provide them decent health care... so our coffee won't suddenly have no one to serve it. Makes sense to me.
Too bad that's not a pure market sentiment. Guess I'm a dirty, liberal socialist schweinhund.