Drift Signal

Drift Signal

Share this post

Drift Signal
Drift Signal
Fixing the Welfare State Isn't About Neoliberalism
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More

Fixing the Welfare State Isn't About Neoliberalism

European Straits #19

Nicolas Colin's avatar
Nicolas Colin
May 31, 2017
∙ Paid

Share this post

Drift Signal
Drift Signal
Fixing the Welfare State Isn't About Neoliberalism
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
Share

Dear all,

Last week’s newsletter, about the future of the welfare state, became an op-ed in the Financial Times’s Monday edition: How to fix the welfare state for the entrepreneurial age.

If you follow the link and scroll down to the comments section, you’ll see that most people criticize the idea that entrepreneurs have a bigger role to play when it comes to covering critical risks. For them, the fact that startups can contribute to making social insurance more efficient and effective is seemingly synonymous with the neoliberal ideal of scaling back state intervention.

But that’s not what I have in mind. The neoliberal case is about relying more on the private sector for the sake of reducing public spending, even if it means depriving people of proper coverage because of well-known market imperfections. The entrepreneurial case, on the other hand, is precisely about correcting those market imperfections. By relying on tech startups, not incumbent insurance companies, entrepreneurial lib…

This post is for paid subscribers

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Nicolas Colin
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share

Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More