The Future of the Welfare State

European Straits #18

Dear all,

Since my new book ‘HEDGE’ covers the future of our social compact, a large part of it will be dedicated to discussing the welfare state and how it must be reinvented for the current Entrepreneurial Age.

One of the core beliefs at the heart of The Family’s investment thesis is that the current techno-economic transition does not call for more or less state intervention. Rather it should lead us to redraw the map and reapportion the respective perimeters of the market and the state. There are areas in our economy where the rise of technology calls for more, not less state intervention. Conversely, there are other areas where new technology-driven models end up correcting imperfections that long rigged the functioning of the market: with those imperfections gone, state intervention becomes a nuisance rather than a value-creating institution.

I think that social insurance is one such area in which there will be more room for entrepreneurial ventures as opposed to government agencie…